P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
This week, our focus is on what it looks like to have faith in the midst of adversity.
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 enter into this time today, would you allow me to lay down all fears, worries, and anxieties at your feet? Allow me to set this time apart as a space to meet with the God who created all things and loves me personally. Fill me with your Spirit and give me eyes to see what you have for me in your Scripture today.
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Isaiah 26…
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Isaiah 26:3-4
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
Psalm 62:1-4
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?”
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
Psalm 62:1-4
This is a Psalm of David where it is clear he is in the midst of adversity, but his confidence in who the Lord is is overwhelming. He has people attacking him, and he feels like a leaning wall. They are trying to strip him of his kingship through lies. On the outside they bless, but inwardly, they curse. What’s David’s answer? To trust in the Lord by entering into silence. In that silence, reminding himself that the Lord is his rock, salvation, and fortress. That makes him able to say, “I shall not be greatly shaken.”
Lord, in the midst of adversity, let me turn my face to you. I ask that you show me your goodness.
Lord, revive us! Pour out your Holy Spirit on your Church and make those who are asleep come alive. Do the impossible in this world and make it your own. Our hope is in you.
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?
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
Psalm 62:1-4
Yielding Prayer
Lord, you are my rock, my salvation, and my fortress. Forgive me for running to anything else. In obedience in the midst of adversity, I get silent before you and wait for you to move. In obedience, I trust you in the midst of the unknown.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in John 14…
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:27
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