P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Paul will take us back to the story of Abraham this week in Galatians. So today we head back into Genesis to refresh ourselves.
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
Jesus, your throne is one of power and grace. Your presence is one of forgiveness and freedom. Would you open my heart to who you are today? May I experience your Word and the life that it brings?
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 105:
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Psalm 105:1-3
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Genesis 12 and 15, where we read:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Genesis 12:1-9
And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
Genesis 15:7-21
Because Paul will go back to this moment, we have to as well in order to understand. Just like last week as part of his argument Paul will include Abraham. A man that was loved by the Judaizers, but Paul will show them how they are reading the story of Abraham wrongly. God tells Abraham that he will make him a great nation, make his name great, and through him nations will be blessed and cursed. God leads with the difficult part. The part that just didn’t happen back then. The part where Abraham has to leave all that he has known and go into the unknown is only based on the trust he has in God, which is a new relationship all in all. So he sets out at 75 years old when we fast forward to Genesis 15 where we see a covenant ceremony. Abraham asks God the question how shall he know that all of this will take place? Unto this point, all he has is the Word of the Lord. God graciously does something amazing for Abraham. God enters into a covenant with Abraham. A covenant was not sealed with a handshake in their days but with bloodshed. So what would happen is that the animal’s blood would be shed with half the carcasses on one side and half on the other, bloody I know. Then both parties would walk through it to signify if what we have promised does not come true then the one who broke the covenant shall end up like these animals. What is the fascinating part of this covenant? Only God walks through. God is saying I am going to make this happen, you are not involved in it at all so don’t you worry about a thing. All Abraham has to do is trust in faith that the Lord will provide him with everything that the promise entails. We know on this side of history that God does everything he promises, not based on Abraham’s or his descendants’ performance.
Lord, would you show me who you are through odd stories like these? I ask that I would see you as a God who fulfills what he promises. A God that can be trusted with it all!
1)What do I learn about God from these passages?
2)What has the Lord promised me?
3)How will I wait on the Lord in the midst of this promise?
Lord, our continued prayer is that you would pour out your Holy Spirit on your people. Pour out your Spirit so that we may have life. Fill us with your Spirit that in us gives us the fullness of life so that we may never go back to the lesser things of this world. Melt the hearts of the stubborn. Open the eyes of the blind so that they might see you. Give us a supernatural experience in our church, in our city, and in our nation of your glory. Allow us to know you in this way today.
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.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Genesis 12:1-9
And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
Genesis 15:7-21
Yielding Prayer
Lord, you are the God who can be trusted. I yield in obedience to you and your promises. Give me eyes that look beyond my current circumstances. Give me eyes that see that you are the Lord who controls all things and you bring about everything that you promise to. Give me hope and trust in the seasons of waiting ahead.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Romans 8:1-4:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1-4
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.