P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Today we will explore the ultimate of the fruit of the Spirit, love.
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
My Father, your word speaks of your steadfast and unfailing love toward me. So, I come now to hide under the shadow of your wings and to simply enjoy that love! Let me “feast on the abundance of your house” and “drink from the river of your delights!” I know that with you is the fountain of life; fill me to overflow as I meet with you today! For, where the river flows, life abounds. (Based on Psalm 36:7-9 and Ezekiel 47:9b)
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the incredible love of God shown to us in Isaiah 53:
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:10-11
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
Galatians 5:22
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
As I reread the passage, I reflect on the questions, “How is my life touched by this word?” and “How does this passage connect with my life?”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
Galatians 5:22
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
In John 13:34-35, Jesus gives us a new commandment to love one another “just as” he has loved us. And then he tells us that love is to be the identifying factor of our faith! In fact, Francis Schaeffer said that, “The Lord has given the world the right to judge the church. If they see us not loving each other, they have the right to say we are not his disciples.” And, in Galatians 5:6, the Apostle Paul, too, says that our faith in Christ is to express itself in love. So how do we cultivate this most important fruit in our lives?
The Bible tells us that the kind of love we are to have for one another (and others) is a love that only God can produce. It is a supernatural love that has been (and continues to be) poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5) This is the love that we are to have for each other (and for people outside of the church)! And it’s the expression of this love that provides evidence that we have, in fact, been born again. As we step out in faith to love, he then provides this kind of love to and through us.
So what is our part in this process? As mentioned above, love is a command. Which means that, if we do not love in this fashion, then we are disobeying this command. We tend to associate love with a feeling (and it is difficult to command someone to feel something), but what God is calling us to in these passages is a love that comes primarily from a decision. In other words, this kind of love is less dependent upon our emotions than it is our will. Jesus, in John 15 (above), goes as far as to say that our love should look like his: giving, self-sacrificing and even scandalously surprising love that is willing to go as far as to lay down our lives for our friends! Perhaps we will not be called to go that far in love, but we certainly may be called to make ourselves, what we possess, and our abilities and talents available to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, shows us what love should look like in our lives; how we should “do love,” if you will. It’s an intimidating list! And it’s counter-cultural in many ways! But remember, as we decide to step out in faith to obey, asking God to fill us with his Spirit and power so that we can love even those who are hard for us to love, he will come and help. And before long, we will see the fruit of the Spirit that is love beginning to form in our lives! Which is a fruit that is beautiful and life-giving both to us and to others!
Dear Jesus, you have given us an amazing example of what real love looks like. Help me to understand the extent of the love that you are calling me to express to others. Is there a brother or sister in my life that I have written off simply because they said or did something that I took offense to, or even just annoyed me? Do I keep a record of wrongs? Show me where I am not patient and kind and where I have been selfish towards others. Help me to decide to love others like you have loved me and then empower me to do so.
Father, forgive me for any damage I may have caused to the way other people view your church (and perhaps even you) due to my lack of love. Build in me a desire to show the world the kind of love you have for them by the way I love!
Lord, I want all of you that there is to have! I want that personally, I want that for Rio, and I want that for the Church here in South Florida! So, give us faith for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our day! And teach us to wait on you, to listen for your voice, to pray persistently for your Empowering Presence, and then to walk in your power. Do a great work through us for the sake of your Kingdom and your glory!
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?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
Galatians 5:22
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
Yielding Prayer
My Jesus, as I review the list of what love looks like from 1 Corinthians 13, I see that many of these things are internal matters of the heart. Left unchecked, they may express themselves externally eventually, but they begin as things like jealousy, pride, irritable thoughts, or judgemental and disparaging attitudes towards other people. Lord, please help me to catch these thoughts and attitudes as soon as my mind starts going down those hateful roads and help me to choose to love instead, as you command. For, when I do that, your Spirit of love and life can flow through me in power to your glory!
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Jude 1:
“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
Jude 1:20-21
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.