Week: Authentic Prayer
Each day we will simply pray (P.R.A.Y.) together.
P: PAUSING to be still.
R: REJOICING with a Memory Verse and REFLECTING on some verses from the Bible.
A: ASKING God to help us and others.
Y: saying YES to God’s ways.
We start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
Lord God, we look forward to discovering more of Your wisdom in the Old Testament. Show us the way You want us to live, and help us to walk in Your ways today.
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Jackson R
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NCV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
For the whole of this week, we will be reflecting on the Psalms: a collection of songs, poems and prayers found in the Old Testament. Many of them were written by a man called David.
Read by Jackson R
Psalm 27:1,4
The Lord is my light and the one who saves me.
So why should I fear anyone?
The Lord protects my life.
So why should I be afraid?
I ask only one thing from the Lord.
This is what I want:
Let me live in the Lord’s house
all my life.
Let me see the Lord’s beauty
and look with my own eyes at his Temple.
Psalm 27:1,4 (NCV)
When David wrote this Psalm, he was a king. He was incredibly wealthy, and he had a lot of power and influence. He had servants who fed him and looked after him. He even had an army to protect him! And yet, in this Psalm, King David says that he wants something else more than all this stuff. There’s something else that he longs for – to live ‘in the Lord’s house’ and to ‘see the Lord’s beauty,’ what he means is more than anything else he wants to be close to God. That’s what prayer is about, before anything else, having a relationship with God.
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which is: What are we longing for at the moment? Maybe it’s an upcoming holiday, a trip, a birthday, someone we’re looking forward to see, or maybe it’s something else?
In today’s Psalm, David says, ‘Let me live in the house of the Lord all my life.’
We want that too, Lord. Like David, we long to be with You – to be aware of Your presence with us, every single day, wherever we are. At the start of this new week, we ASK You to be with us.
Let’s close our eyes for a moment and whisper the names of some of the people who we are likely to see this week. Maybe friends at school or at work, or people in the groups or clubs that we belong to.
Lord God, we ASK that they will become aware of Your presence too.
As we read the Bible again, let’s listen for a word or a phrase that the Holy Spirit might want to say to us from today’s verses.
Psalm 27:1,4
The Lord is my light and the one who saves me.
So why should I fear anyone?
The Lord protects my life.
So why should I be afraid?
I ask only one thing from the Lord.
This is what I want:
Let me live in the Lord’s house
all my life.
Let me see the Lord’s beauty
and look with my own eyes at his Temple.
Psalm 27:1,4 (NCV)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Creator God, thank you for the wisdom that we’ve heard from Your Word today. We say Yes to walking the way that You want us to. We long to know more about You, and we long to experience more of Your presence too.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for You in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NCV)
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
Unathi lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her husband and 5 kids; and has a passion for seeing families thriving.
You’ll most likely find her homeschooling the tribe, reading, writing, or dreaming about the next DIY project.
She also loves good coffee, dark chocolate and hiking.
Jackson is 11 and lives with his younger brother and parents in Surrey. He loves pretty much all sport but his favourites are football, golf and jumping off high stuff into water! He enjoys gaming and is always ready to build something on Minecraft.
