P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Today our focus is on the Holy Spirit and the help that he brings to us when it comes to understanding and obeying Scripture.
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 today I desire you to speak because your servant is listening.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 112:1:
Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
Psalm 112:1
As I read the passage, I am asking the Lord to reveal a word or phrase that stands out to me.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:15-17; 25-27
As I reread the passage, I am reflecting on the questions, “How is my life touched by this word?” and “How does this passage connect with my life?”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:15-17; 25-27
In this scene Jesus is preparing his disciples for his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He is preparing them for the eventual day when he won’t be physically present with them on this earth. He tells them there is good news though! He is going to send them the Helper, the Holy Spirit. We see two ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us. The first is that Jesus says if we love him we will keep his commands. That is the order of operations. Out of love, we obey. We don’t obey to be loved, but he knows we can’t do that in our own power. We need help. We need the Holy Spirit to fill us and transform us. The second way that the Holy Spirit helps us in reference to Scripture is that he illuminates the Scriptures so that not only can we understand and obey, but we can be transformed by it. We need the Holy Spirit to fill us as we read the Scriptures. We need to ask for his help when we come to the Scriptures.
Jesus, I ask that you would fill me with the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit’s power to bring to life the Scriptures in my heart.
Let’s pray. O God, O God, you know, the world is spinning on. Time is getting less and running out. Children are becoming youth, and youth becoming middle-aged, and middle-aged are getting old and dying. And you have said redeem the time for the days are evil. Lord, please don’t let us fail here. Lord, you do want us to be revived again. You do want to revive your people, Lord, individual people. And then, if the number of individual people can band together, then the church has been revived. God, revive your people. Grant, Lord, to help.
– A.W. Tozer
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?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:15-17; 25-27
Yielding Prayer
Lord, I ask that you would fill me with the Holy Spirit. I need more help than I always desire to admit. In this moment though I am asking for the Holy Spirit to help me. Help me as I seek to yield to your commands in my life. Transform me by the power of your Spirit and make me Holy.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Isaiah 40:8:
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:8
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.