P.R.A.Y

PAUSE

REJOICE & REFLECT

ASK

YIELD

Personal Worship

Today we see how the justice and mercy of God shows itself in Cain’s life.

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.

Pause

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, meet with me today. Where there is chaos will you bring order? Where there is fear will you bring courage? Where there are anxieties will you bring peace? Where there is doubt, will you bring faith? Restore my soul back to the one who created it today.

Rejoice and Reflect

I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Isaiah 55…

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have
compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
  so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:6-9

As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.

Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:8-16

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?”

Genesis 4:8-16

Cain does not heed the Lord’s warning. In a fit of anger and jealousy, he murders his brother Abel. God comes to him with questions. God is not unaware of what Cain has done, but he asks questions so Cain realizes what he has done. God deals with Cain in a just, yet merciful manner. God doesn’t take a life for a life, which he could have done. In his mercy, he spares Cain’s life, but Cain is not let off without punishment. Cain is marked and protected by God. It is really difficult in our current world to hold both justice and mercy when dealing with the sin in our world. We tend to err on one side or the other. We are either too lenient or too severe. God is teaching us that sin has consequences, but mercy is near to the heart of the Lord. We can’t overlook sin, but there is mercy because Jesus died to set people free.

Ask

Lord, I ask that you teach my heart what justice and mercy look like in this culture. Give me a deep desire for holiness, but also a tender heart that seeks mercy.

What sticks out to me from this passage?
What is justice? What is mercy?
Why is it so hard to hold both at the same time?
Do I tend in my spirit to be more prone to justice or mercy? How can I ask the Holy Spirit for more of what I tend to lack?

Father, we pray for our marriages in the church. We ask that you help us be husbands who love our wives as you loved the church and gave yourself for us. Help us be wives who respect our husbands and submit to them as you designed. May our marriages bring you great glory and give a picture to the world of how you love us. I pray for my marriage or the marriage of someone I know now.

Yield

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?

Genesis 4:8-16

Yielding Prayer

Lord, you are a God of justice and mercy. Transform my heart to look more like yours. Let me take sin seriously. Create in me a desire for holiness. Give me a tender heart to pursue mercy as far as you would.

Yielding Promise

And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Romans 8…

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-39

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.