P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Self-examination is also a cause to celebrate how God has created us!
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
Lord, as I approach you today I rest in the words of 1 John 4:18:
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All things things were created to, through, and for you, and yet you shower me with your perfect love. Let that perfect love drive out any fear I have as I come into your presence today.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 118:14-16:
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Glad songs of salvation
are in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
the right hand of the Lord exalts,
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
Psalm 118:14-16
As I read the passage, I am asking the Lord to reveal a word or phrase that stands out to me.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psalm 139:13-18
As I reread the passage, I am reflecting on the questions, “How is my life touched by this word?” and “How does this passage connect with my life?”
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psalm 139:13-18
Self-examination can be very one-sided in our minds. The phrase tends to lead itself to seek out all of the bad and the gross inside each of us. David here shows us that that way is just one side of the coin. In self-examination, we also get to celebrate and rejoice in the way that God has made us. As you read the passage make it personal. This is not just how God views David, but this is how God views you. There is sin and brokenness inside of each of us, but there is also the truth that we were each fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. This Psalm invites us to be honest about all of the wonderful things God created in us. It also invites us to become really effective at being ourselves and not someone else and letting God use that for his glory.
Lord, you see me for who I am the good and the bad. Let me hold onto the truth today I am fearfully and wonderfully made by you and no part of me is an accident. I don’t have to run from you. Yes, there is deep sin and brokenness, but there is also good and beauty inside of me. I ask that you show the beautiful parts of who you created me to be today.
Lord, revival begins in me. As I focus on self-examination this week would you create in me a clean heart? You are the God who brings life out of death and I ask that you would do that in my life. Restore to me the joy of my salvation.
As I read the passage for the final time, I listen for how the Lord is inviting me to respond to him. Where in my life do I need to yield in obedience to what he has for me?
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Psalm 139:13-18
Yielding Prayer
Lord, in a world of constant comparison sometimes it is really easy for me to be hard on myself. It is easy for me to lack gratitude for who you created me to be. Forgive me for that. Let me yield in obedience to exactly how you have created me. You are the God who knit me together in my mother’s womb purposefully and wonderfully. Fill me with your Spirit that I may use how you created me for your glory today.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Lamentations 3:22-23:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
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.