P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Gather Weekly
Today we will look at how God comes in power when his people are gathered together.
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 God’s fulfillment of his promises with all his people in the words of Joel 2…
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Joel 2:28-29
Over the next 2 days, we will look at 2 passages where God showed up in power as his people gathered in worship and did what he asked:
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:4-5
Though the disciples clearly felt threatened in the city of Jerusalem after the death and resurrection of Jesus, they did as Christ commanded and went back to the upper room where they had been staying. We’re told that, there, a total of 120 people, “in one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). And then the day of Pentecost arrived.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:2-4
They waited, prayed and, no doubt, worshiped together for 10 days! Granted, they had seen Jesus rise from the dead and knew that he would faithfully fulfill his promise to send the Holy Spirit, but I wonder if any of those disciples found it hard to wait and pray the way that we do today, or if they wondered, as we often do, why the Lord took so long to fulfill his promise.
Do you wonder if everyone was there when the Spirit came, or if some had left to take care of some business and missed it? Certainly, this was an unusual moment of fulfilled prophecy! But I wonder if God would have poured out his Spirit if most of the people had left?
Lord Jesus, there are things we wait for as a church. We are calling out to you for revival, for salvation for our loved ones, for the broken and lost all around us, for each other’s struggles, for a healing of this land. And yet, I feel like a spiritual midget as I look at the endurance of these disciples!
I think about how, prior to the crucifixion, they couldn’t stay awake an hour to pray with you, but after your resurrection they prayed together for 10 days straight! Let my faith be rejuvenated as I remind myself of the power of my resurrected Savior!
Teach me Lord, what power would you pour out on me (and on us) if we sought you like that? What wounds would you heal? What shackles would you break?
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.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:4-5
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:2-4
Yielding Prayer
Father, sometimes it feels like you are slow to answer, like you won’t ever come. Have I stopped believing you will? Have I stopped believing that you are mighty to come in power as you have in the past? Am I just doing church because I know that I’m supposed to? Great and mighty Lord, forgive me. I believe you are still the wonder-working God! I yield to wait and pray in faith, trusting that you will and can do mighty things in me and amongst your people!
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who has loved me and forgives my sins says to me in 2 Chronicles…
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Closing Prayer
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought me in safety to this new day: Preserve me with your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.1
1Phyllis Tickle, Divine Hours, Prayers for Summertime, (Doubleday: Random House), The Concluding Prayer of the Church, pg 51.