Week: How to Pray...
As usual, 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
Our Father in heaven, we know that You are with us and that You want to talk with us – so we respond very simply by saying: ‘Here we are, we’re ready. Teach us how to pray.’
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Zoë
Ephesians 3:20
With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20 (NCV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
Today we’re REFLECTING on the ‘R’ part of our P.R.A.Y process, ‘Rejoicing’. To ‘rejoice’ means to feel or show great delight, and today’s Psalm invites us to do just that.
Read by Zoë
Psalm 103:1-2
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
Psalms 103:1-2 (NLT)
To express our great delight in God and list some of the amazing things about God is the best way to start our prayers. Not because God needs reminding, but because we do! God is omnipotent – the most powerful being in or beyond the Universe. God is omniscient – knowing more than anyone and anything. And God is omnipresent – everywhere, all at the same time! How cool is that? As we rejoice in God, we remind ourselves just how incredible He is.
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which is: Rejoicing is a bit like celebrating – what ways do we most enjoy celebrating the things that we love?
And now, we ASK God to help us and others.
Lord God, we often jump straight into ASKing You for things, but today we rejoice in how incredible You are. All around us are reminders of how awesome you really are, so remind us to think about You when something excites us or amazes us.
Talking of awesome… our brains contain 200 exabytes of information, which is about the same amount as all the digital content on the Internet!
Father God, we all love to use the Internet. We ASK You to help those who create the digital content we use to have integrity, so that what we let into our minds is helpful and honouring to You.
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 103:1-2
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
Psalms 103:1-2 (NLT)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Heavenly Father, it’s easy to look through a microscope and focus on the small things in our lives, forgetting to look through a telescope at how big You are, and at the big things that You have done for us. So, we say YES to gazing at your awesomeness and focusing on You.
Pause
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
Ephesians 3:20
With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20 (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.
Content from today’s Lectio for Families is adapted from Pete Greig and Gemma Hunt’s book, ‘How to Pray: A Guide for Young Explorers’ (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022). Why not order your own copy? https://www.24-7prayer.com/resource/how-to-pray-a-guide-for-young-explorers/
Chris lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two boys. He works for 24-7 Prayer Australia and Red Church and is also a professional musician. When he’s not working or drumming Chris enjoys going on long hikes in the mountains with his boys and playing table tennis.
Zoë Thandeka (Thandi) is 13 and she lives in Guildford, in the UK, with her family. She loves football (her favourite football team is Liverpool FC), Top Gear and car-spotting. When she’s older, Zoë wants to be a photographer or work with animals in some way.
