P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Gather Weekly
This morning we look at the first reason why gathering is important for a Christian: To experience the presence of God.
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
For you alone my soul waits in silence; for from you comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1) Teach me to trust that as I wait on you, you will continue the work of redemption that you began in me.
We choose to rejoice in the unbounded and universal presence of our amazing God with David and all God’s people in the words of Psalm 139…
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
Psalm 139:7-12
Today, we are reflecting on God’s presence with His people. “Theologians have always recognized that God is present in different ways in different places.”1
In our Rejoice passage, we recognized that God is present everywhere, even where there are no people present. We know as well, that when a person is saved, or born again, the Holy Spirit begins to live in that individual (1 Cor. 6:19). But thirdly and amazingly, God also dwells among His people, the local church, when they gather together:
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
2 Corinthians 6:16b
Even as God dwelled in the place of the tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament, he dwells amongst his gathered people in our local churches today. This is an awe-inspiring, incredible promise, but if we are being honest, we don’t always experience the presence of God at church.
Let’s look at the larger passage surrounding our text, where we find some warnings that might help to make sense of our experience.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
These verses are a warning against idolatry and any association with the world that can pull us away from our God. We are a called-out, separated, people!
It is, of course, impossible to be wholly separate from the world, but we should beware of the danger it poses to our relationship with God. We must continually check to make sure there is no love of the world in our hearts.
Imagine how rich his presence would be among us if we all came to church with clean hearts, eager to experience his presence!
1“God is present in different ways in different places, … God acts differently in different places in his creation,” according to Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 175
God, please help me understand how I truly view the church. And what does it mean that you walk among us?
Have I come to church with my heart prepared to look for you, to meet with you? Have I given other believers the place in my life that you want them to occupy?
Is there a relationship or an idol in my life that keeps me from experiencing as much of your presence as you would like to give me?
Father, I pray for Rio Vista Church, that you would choose to dwell richly among us as we come together to worship you, with hearts that have you rightly on the throne! May we see each other as you see us and recognize and cultivate the bond you have given us. I also pray for the other churches in South Florida that are also asking you to come and move in power. May we help each other surrender our idols, so that we can experience more of you.
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.
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Yielding Prayer
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who has called me out as a beloved child says to me in Ephesians 2…
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Closing Prayer
2Nettleton, Asahel. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Trinity Hymnal, Great Commission Publications, 1990, page 457.
3Phyllis Tickle, Divine Hours, Prayers for Summertime, (Doubleday: Random House), The Concluding Prayer of the Church, pg 51