P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Jesus teaches us today that a disciple’s heart seeks to be free from hypocrisy.
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 your throne today fill me with your Holy Spirit and remind me that I am a beloved child of yours. I come knowing that you give good gifts to your children because you love us. Meet with me in this time.
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Psalm 18:
This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
Psalm 18:30
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Luke 12:1-3
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?”
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Luke 12:1-3
The first lesson on the road the road to following Jesus is that a disciple of Jesus’ heart seeks to be free from hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the reality gap between our outward appearance of godliness and the sinner that lives inside of us. That is why Jesus is always going after the Pharisees because their hearts don’t match their actions. They say one thing and do another. They say they follow the Law of God, but only when it suits them. Jesus is coming to the crowd that day and to us and saying that integrity matters. He illustrates this with leaven. Leaven is the yeast that makes its way through the dough to make bread rise. Jesus often us small subtle things that have a way to pervasively grow and ruin the whole of something. Hypocrisy has the ability to do that because we can’t hide forever. That sounds scary, but Jesus is inviting us into freedom. Freedom to walk with him in integrity now and not just in the future. Remember we have a God who forgives us when we come to him authentically in repentance.
Lord, I ask that you reveal to me my hypocrisy, because I know I have it as a sinful human. Let me not wallow in shame, but let me come to you who is faithful and just to forgive me and fill me with your Spirit that I may be transformed towards integrity.
A.W. Tozer once said, “Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. We want to still be in charge shouting “Glory to God,” but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves, calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely ignoring the fact that they are our altars and not God’s.”
Lord, I pray that you break us as people of the inkling we have that any glory should be ours. Show us where we are holding onto our own altars. Fill us with your Spirit so that all we desire is for you to be in charge and have all the glory. Send fire on your altars and not ours. Revive us Lord in a way that only you can do!
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?
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
Luke 12:1-3
Yielding Prayer
Lord, I yield to your Word today. Hypocrisy doesn’t always seem like a huge deal in my mind, but to you it is. Forgive me for my hypocrisy and give me the desire to live a life of integrity. Fill me with your Spirit because I need your power to transform me.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in John 16:33:
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
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.