P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Paul introduces the question we might be thinking, “So then why the law?”
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:
He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your portion for an inheritance.”
Psalm 105:7-11
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Galatians 3, where we read:
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
Galatians 3:19-20
You can almost hear the indignation that Paul is faking for the Judaizers and what they must be thinking right now. The Judaizers must be thinking, “Okay, Paul, if salvation only comes through faith and the promise what about Moses and the law?” Here is what the Judaizers get wrong though. Paul isn’t saying the law is not worthwhile, he is saying they are misunderstanding its use. The law is beautiful because it shows us our need for salvation. When we hold up our lives, our behaviors, and our thoughts against the perfect law of the Holy God it should be crushing for us. The law makes our sins plainly seen not just as breaking the law of God but as sinning against God himself. Paul of all people is not saying the law should be thrown out, he is saying that the beauty of the true gospel is that the law shows us our need for the true offspring, Jesus, to come and to do what we could not do for ourselves.
Andrew Jukes has this beautiful line where he says, “Satan would have us to prove ourselves holy by the law, which God gave to prove us, sinners.” The first step to salvation is seeing our need for the perfect blood of Jesus to cover all of our transgressions.
Jesus, I ask that you would show me the true purpose of the law. In an uncomfortable way today would you show me my sin, so I can find freedom from it in the promise?
1)How well do I know the law of God?
2)When did I first realize in my life that the law showed me that I was a sinner?
3)Where is the law revealing my sinfulness today?
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.
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
Galatians 3:19-20
Yielding Prayer
Lord, the beauty of the law is that it does not have the final word in my life. The law serves a purpose, but the law is a means to finding my salvation in you and you alone. Give me eyes to see the true purpose of the law, but also give me eyes to see the promise that you gave Abraham, and let me be justified by faith in it.
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.