P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
We begin the week with the regular reminder of the call of Jesus on 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
Father, thank you for meeting me here. I bring you my whole self—my joys, my worries, and my need for your wisdom. Speak to me through your Word and help me to listen well. Let this time with you refresh my heart and guide my steps today.
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Psalm 9…
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34-38
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?”
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34-38
Jesus calls the whole crowd over for this. He gives us the necessary steps to follow after him. It is a call of self-denial and self-sacrifice. He is gracious to give us the why, though. He says whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for his sake and the gospel’s will save it. He is referring to the brief life we have here on earth in comparison to the vastness of eternity. We get somewhere between 0 and 100 years on this earth, and what are we going to do with them? We can give this life away for the sake of Jesus and the gospel and find everything we need. The other option is to live this life for ourselves and for this world’s sake and miss it all.
Lord, let me hear your call and take you seriously today. Show me what it means to follow after you, and by your grace, show me where I am living for myself.
Lord, awaken my heart and stir my spirit with fresh fire from you. Revive my love for your Word, renew my joy in your presence, and restore my zeal to live for your glory. Let your Spirit breathe new life in me, that I may walk in your power and shine your light in a weary world.
As I read the passage for the final time, I listen to 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?
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34-38
Yielding Prayer
Lord, fill me with your Spirit now. Forgive me for all the ways I am striving after this world. I repent and I come back to you. Give me the strength to obey this call today. Let me deny myself and take up my cross. Show me what it means to lose my life for your sake today.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Colossians 1…
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:15-16
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