P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
God gives us some math today in order to think about the length of our lives.
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, I come to you praying the Words from Matthew 7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Lord, I come asking and knocking today trusting that you are the Good Father.
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in John 10…
I [Jesus] am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
ou sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
Psalm 90:3-6
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?”
You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
ou sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
Psalm 90:3-6
God wants us to see that we are not him. He reminds us that all of our lives end up in the grave of dust. Then he gives us some math to compare our lives to his. He says a thousand years is like 24 hours. So let’s say you live to be 100 years old for easy math. 1/10 of 24 hours is 2.4 hours. That is what it is like to God. A watch was 3 hours or 180 minutes. So again let’s live to 100 years. 1/10 of 180 minutes is 18 minutes. If we have not gotten to the point yet. We are like sand castles on the beach that get swept away by the tides. He’s not doing this to depress us, but to show us the limitations of life. To give us an honest look at what we are looking at when it comes to this life because it makes us see what is truly important with our time here.
Lord, I know I am a finite creature and yet if you look at my life it doesn’t seem like I believe it. Show me my limitations, so that I can live in such a way that matters with the time I am given.
Lord, take these dead bones and breathe life into them. Take this life and animate it by the power of your Holy Spirit. Fill this earth with your glory. Bring those who are lost into the Kingdom of God. You are the God whose power is limitless and we ask that you do what only you can do and bring revival to our world.
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?
You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
ou sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
Psalm 90:3-6
Yielding Prayer
Lord, show me that my time matters. That this life gives me two paths and I get the freedom to choose one. Let me in obedience choose a path that leads to life with you. Break me of all the weights that burden me and show me the joy of a life of obedience to you and you alone.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Isaiah 55…
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
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.