P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
We end the week with Jesus’ call for all those who will follow after him.
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 where I can 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 Jeremiah 29…
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
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 doesn’t mince words here. This is not just a call for his disciples at the time, but for anyone who would want to follow after him including us today. He begins with denying ourselves at the core of making him our God and king. He brings in the tool of his execution and shows us what a life of sacrifice looks like in the way he will ultimately give his life to set us free. In his grace, he tells us why. He shows us that this world will one day reach an end and all that will matter is what we have done in this life that will echo in eternity. The only things that echo in eternity are the things that are done for and through Jesus and his gospel.
Lord, I want to follow after you, but oftentimes I am distracted and scared by the ways of this world. I get sucked into believing that this life is all there is. Show me what it looks like to follow after you.
Lord, you are the resurrection and the life. I ask now that you revive what is dead in me and draw me deeper into intimacy with you. Pour out your Spirit on my life and breathe new life into me.
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?
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, you have called me to a life of denial and sacrifice. You do not call only me to this, but this is the life you lived out for me. Let me see that you are the God who denied himself and sacrificed himself so that I can have life. Let me experience that kind of love that draws me into obedience in this life. This is not a have-to-do, but a get-to-do because I’m doing it with and for you. Fill me with your Spirit so that I can look for and see the opportunities you have for me to share a gospel that this world cannot give or take from me. Let my life be in obedience to you today.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 1 Corinthians…
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
1 Corinthians 1:20-22
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.