P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
We looked at Paul’s confrontation with Peter in Galatians. Today, we will look at how that changed Peter.
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 your presence remind me of what you say in Zephaniah 3:17. You are the God who is in my midst. You are the God who is mighty to save. You rejoice over me with gladness. You quiet my restless heart with your love. Through every aspect of my life, you are singing over me. Bury these truths deep down in my soul as I enter into my time with you.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 16:
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Psalm 16:4-6
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Galatians 2:11-14 and 1 Peter 1:1-2; 2:9-10, where we read:
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Galatians 2:11-14
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1 Peter 1:1-2
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy
1 Peter 2:9-10
Peter wrote his epistle around a decade after being confronted by Paul and what do we see? We see that he needed that confrontation in his life because God used that to transform him. As he writes his epistle he includes the Church in Galatia. The Dispersion is not just the Jewish community anymore, but it is all believers whom this earth is not their home. How does he describe the body of Jews and Gentiles that have found new life in Jesus Christ? They are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.
How beautiful that a confrontation is what it should be? Peter didn’t hate Paul after this. They weren’t divided because of it. We don’t see Peter’s transformation, but we can see that it did happen. Peter in humility was able to have his actions have been proven wrong and learn from it. Isn’t that the gospel being lived out in a community? The willingness to be seen, known, confronted, and from all of that be transformed. It is a lost art and one that can only be viewed from the lens of the gospel. The humility to admit our faults. An admittance that doesn’t lead to shame or condemnation, but to transformation
Lord, I ask that you show me where I need to be pruned by you. I ask for relationships in my life where I can be known. A community that seeks my good sometimes in difficult ways, but in a way that restoration is the goal.
1)How would I have responded if I was Peter?
2)Do I have a community around me that seeks my good by showing me my faults in love and with my good in mind?
3)If not, will have the courage to seek that out?
You are the God who moves. I ask that you would do exactly what you have done in every century throughout history. Move in your people. Awake the sleepers. Save the lost. Meet this world in a supernatural way that brings you all the glory. We are crying out for a broken and messy world that needs your love so desperately.
As I read the passage again slowly, I listen for anything that You would say to me in it. Help me see how to position my life in order to yield to your word.
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Galatians 2:11-14
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1 Peter 1:1-2
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy
1 Peter 2:9-10
Yielding Prayer
Lord, I yield to the truth that I am not created to live life on an island. That you have put other believers in my life for my good. I yield in humility when I am appropriately called out in gentleness. Allow me to be transformed by the church around me.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
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.