P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Today we look at the goal of revival: the presence of God.
Together we will pray (P.R.A.Y.) each day – ‘P’: Pausing to be still as we come into the presence of the Lord. ‘R’: Rejoicing as we remember who our God is and what He has done, and Reflecting on His word. ‘A’: Asking God to help us and others. And ‘Y’: yielding to His will in accordance with His word.
As I come before you to pray, I still my thoughts and quiet my mind. I seek to make you the center of my focus.
Prayer of Approach
Heavenly Father, you promise that when I seek you with all my heart, I will find you. I offer my soul to you this morning. Would you teach me more of what it looks like to seek you this way, so that I might find you in my every place of need. (Jeremiah 29:13)
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 139:
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
Psalm 139:5-10
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Exodus 33, where we read:
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
Exodus 33:12-16
The goal of revival is not evangelism, or passionate worship, or sweeping cultural or societal change. The goal of revival is the presence of God revealed to the world through his people. As a result of Israel’s disobedience, God had threatened to give them the promised land, together with all of its many blessings, but without his presence. In other words, he said, “you can have everything that I promised you (cities you didn’t build, farms and orchards and vineyards you didn’t plant or cultivate, etc.), but you can no longer have me.” And Moses flatly refused! In effect, Moses said, “God, it doesn’t matter if I (or if we) have your ‘favor,’ if we don’t also have your presence! It doesn’t matter that we’re ‘your people,’ if we don’t also have you! For, the prize was never deliverance from Egypt, or from the Red Sea, or even from the terrifying deprivations of this wilderness that we’re presently living in! And the prize is also not the promised land with all of its cities and farms and orchards and vineyards and wealth and comfort and safety! The prize is your presence! So, we don’t want the blessings, without the Blesser; the deliverance, without the Deliverer; the salvation, without the Savior; the gifts, without the Giver; the effects of revival, as wonderful as they are, without the goal of revival, which is you and your presence revealed to the world through your people! Bottom line: if you’re not going with us, then we’re not going! We’ll just stay out here in the wilderness with you!” What a man! What wonderful, beautiful and biblical leadership! And I love God’s response! In the very next verse, we read: “And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:17)
Lord, I confess that I often want the blessing without the Blesser; the deliverance, without the Deliverer; the salvation, without the Savior; the gifts, without the Giver; the effects of revival, as wonderful as they are (please, Jesus, change the present course of our nation), without the goal of revival, which is you and your presence revealed to the world through your people! My desire is for the wrong thing! Better to be in the wilderness with you, than the promised land without you. Indeed, your presence transforms the wilderness into the promised land.
1)What are you hungry for today? The blessings? Or the Blesser?
2)Are you content to stay in the “wilderness” with God, or would you rather occupy the “promised land” without God?
3)How much time do you spend praying for and seeking the presence of God in your life, family, Rio and the church at large, versus praying for and seeking various other “blessings” from the Lord?
Dear Lord, our world is so broken. So many are hurting and in despair and darkness. Break our hearts for it so that we do not cease crying out fervently to you for mercy. We don’t have answers or solutions, we can’t fix what is broken. In humility, we come to you in our need. You are our hope! A word from you can change everything. Come and grant us grace, awaken your slumbering church, we pray and be glorified again here on the earth!
As I read the passage again slowly, I listen for anything that You would say to me in it. Help me see how to position my life in order to yield to your word.
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
Exodus 33:12-16
Yielding Prayer
My Father, You are the God who leads me both into the wilderness and into the land of blessing. Let me be content in both places, trusting that You are with me and Your purposes are always good. Let me not seek to escape from Your will and design for me. Remind me that You hear me and will answer as I intercede for the world around me!
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Psalm 16:
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
Closing Prayer
Lord, enable me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to love you today with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength; and to serve you today, by loving and caring for others as I do my own self; and, to exalt you today, by telling the people in my world about the abundant and eternal life found only through faith in Jesus.
*The P.R.A.Y. acronym has been adapted from the Lectio 365 app.