P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
We enter into one of Jesus’ teachings on prayer today.
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
O Lord, as I approach you today, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. Meet with me, I ask.
Adapted from Psalm 131
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Psalm 35…
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 35:17-18
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
“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!
Matthew 7:7-11
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?”
“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!
Matthew 7:7-11
This passage is super encouraging and convicting, all in the same breath. Jesus encourages us by showing us who our God is. He is a good Father in heaven who seeks to give good things to those who ask him. It is convicting because that means that I am the problem, or better stated, my lack of prayer is the problem. It shows me that my dependence, most of the time, is on me. Jesus’ invitation here is to come to him with all that we need and see what he does.
Lord, I ask that you remind me today that you are the Good Father who wants to hear from his children. Show me what dependence on you looks like today.
Lord, I cry out to you today and desire to see your presence made manifest on this earth. Would you do what only you can do, and would you rend the heavens and come down? Would you meet with your people in their iniquities again? Fill me with your Holy Spirit and let me continue to cry out until you move.
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?
“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!
Matthew 7:7-11
Yielding Prayer
Lord, in obedience today, I ask, seek, and knock. I trust that you are good and you love me. I trust the response you give to my prayers, knowing that if I knew all that you knew, I would probably have prayed a different prayer.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 1 John 5…
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15
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.