P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Today we will explore what God’s word says is his design for gender.
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
Our Father, as we humbly approach the throne, we know, as Jesus taught us, that we shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. Speak Lord as we bow our heads and listen. Instill in us the absolute certainty that a word from you is life, and help us submit to the authority of that word today.
(based on Matthew 4:4)
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 139:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”
Psalm 139:13-18
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Genesis 1, where we read:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28
“What is a man?” and “what is a woman?” are questions that humanity has only recently started asking and that lie at the heart of the cultural debate over gender issues. The question, it seems, is whether these two categories of male and female are determined by anything objective or concrete at all?
Christianity views reality through the lens of Scripture in which God (the Designer of humankind) created humanity, male and female, with both being equal image-bearers of a holy God (Genesis 1:26–28). And he directly tied those two genders of male and female to the physical makeup of our bodies (literally every cell in our bodies carries male or female chromosomes that determine our gender, and our sexual equipment and biological make-up differ as well). As such, he has not left us to define gender and sexuality, either for ourselves or for others. God, who is the author and creator, before the foundation of the world, established our identity, humanity, personhood and purpose. We were made as beings in which our genders align with our anatomical and reproductive abilities, in order to procreate, populate the world, and bring glory to God.
When a male claims to be a female (or vice versa), that is not only a psychological claim, but also a philosophical and biological claim about one’s being. From Genesis 1 onward, the scripture teaches that males and females are biological and embodied beings with immutable natures. The nature of something is the basic or inherent features of that thing. We can’t change our nature by claiming to be something or someone other than who and what we are. And medical intervention cannot change our God-given nature either.
But this does not change the fact that some people around us today struggle with issues relating to gender and sexuality and are genuinely hurting and confused. Our response should be one of kindness, compassion and understanding, for we too are broken people who chose (and occasionally still choose) our own way until Jesus saved us from ourselves. Over the next few days, we will look at what the Bible says about how we got here and what we are to do for our friends and loved ones that struggle with their gender (and their families).
In this season of PrayFirst, we ask the Lord to help us personally and corporately:
Personal:
Have you wavered in your opinion over the truth about gender and sexuality? Are you seeking to understand and come under the authority of what God says about it? Or are you leaning on your own understanding in this area? If there is a struggle in your heart about it, come honestly to Jesus and ask him to help you see it from his perspective. This may require more than just this little prayer time! It may become an ongoing fight in your heart to fully surrender this to the Lord. Trust the Lord to lead you and guide you into all truth, and to not let you go through this struggle alone. He will walk with you!
Corporate:
Pray for our culture. This debate over gender has brought confusion, depression and anxiety to many. Pray that the truth of God’s definition of gender prevails. Pray for many to be drawn to him in the struggle.
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.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28
Yielding Prayer
Our Father, you assure us that your design is very good. Forgive us for thinking that we can somehow make it better. Help us to trust that your plan is best and give us the power to die to our ways, dreams and understanding of things. Lead us to fulfillment, joy and fullness as we follow you. We yield to your way, our Jesus.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in John 5:
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
1 John 5:20
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.