Session 3 • Sabbath • Devotional
This prayer guide was created when we were preparing to have our Prayer Room. Many people had never spent a full hour in prayer with God so we created a guide to frame the time. Our Sabbath often affords us a little extra time to spend with God in rest and contemplation. Feel free to use this as a guide to spend some leisurely time with Jesus.
This guide is designed to lead you through 60 minutes of prayer. It follows along with practices based on The Prayer Course by 24/7 Prayer.
This guide is ancient, finding its roots in the Lord’s Prayer, which is the seminal instruction on prayer straight from the lips of Jesus. Influence and insights from fathers and mothers of the Christian church throughout the centuries gives shape to this guide as well. Because prayer is as simple as relationship, we have borrowed the acronym P.R.A.Y. from Pete Greig, founder of the 24/7 Prayer movement, as a memorable frame for this guide.
P - Pause R - Rejoice A - Ask Y - Yield
(5-10 MINUTES) “Be still, and know that I am God.” - Psalm 46:10
Begin with 5 minutes of silence. If possible, set a timer that will alert you when 5 minutes have passed, allowing you to avoid checking the time. As you begin in silence, pay attention to your posture. It’s helpful to sit up straight, breathe deeply in and out at least three times, then slowly repeat the verse above.
During this time, move through three simple movements: Be Still: Your stillness is a sign that you are releasing control. By sitting quietly with your hands open, you are surrendering control of the next hour to God.
Remember Who God Is: Before uttering a word of prayer, remember the God you are talking to. It may help to reflect on the attributes of God (Love, Power, Strength, Mercy, Grace, Kindness, Gentleness).
Remember Who You Are: Pay attention to yourself. What thoughts are distracting you? What burdens are you weighed down by? Do you feel tightness in your body pointing to tension, stress, or anxiety? Acknowledge before God all you have come carrying before him. When you’re ready, lay it at his feet. Trust that he can hold it while you’re with him.
Finally, remember that the great passion of God is just to be fully present with you, and you with him.
End praying the following, pausing and taking a deep breath after each statement:
Be still and know that I am God Be still and know that I am Be still and know Be still
Be
(15-30 MINUTES)
“OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN” Take a moment and think about the idea of God as your loving parent, with good intentions toward you. You are a child of God, and children have access to their parents. God wants you to approach him with the shameless audacity of a child.
If you want, imagine God in your mind’s eye, your imagination. Picture the face of Christ. Make eye contact with him.
Take a moment to remember that God is as close to you as your very breath. As you breathe in and out, imagine yourself breathing in and out more of the Holy Spirit. It could be helpful here to be mindful of your breathing, spending a few moments praying on your inhale “God is present,” and on your exhale, “even now.”
“HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME”
To hallow means to set aside as holy. Spend a moment recognizing God as holy — as the unique one worthy of your affection. Spend a few minutes just sitting with the Father in joyful, grateful, worship.
The simplest way to think about it is just “noticing.” Notice things about God — His love, His power, His grace, His kindness, His friendship, His faithfulness.
Notice the gifts God has given you, nothing is too big or too small — anything from the miraculous to the common is on the table. Thank God for any and all of His gifts.
You might want to sit in silence for a few moments or sing a chorus of praise aloud. You may want to list things you’re grateful for or praise God with specific things you love about him.
We start with hallowing because we have to remember the God we are talking to before we come with requests. Remembering who God is guides the requests we bring and how we bring them.
(15-20 MINUTES)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” - Luke 11: 9&10
“YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”
Let’s take this one step at a time. First, _“Your will be done.” _Ask for God’s will to be done in your life. This part of the prayer is about releasing control.
Take a moment to think of something in your life you’re currently wrestling for control over. What’s something you’ve never released over to God, or perhaps released in the past but are trying to grab back from Him?
Name it and release it God. You may want to repeatedly pray, “You will be done,” a few times. In releasing, you are saying that you trust God’s plan for that person, idea, or situation even more than your own. Ask for filling from the Lord in place of releasing: peace in place of anxiety, trust in place of fear, compassion in place of anger.
Having released our own control, we now pray, “Your Kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.” Prayers for others — everyone from family to complete strangers — are called “intercession.”
To intercede in prayer is to take seriously Jesus’ invitation to bring heaven to earth. Ask for God’s Kingdom in our midst. You may use your memory, imagination, or vision to guide these requests. The point is to simply, clearly, and specifically ask that God’s Kingdom would come where it lacks. Think of friends outside of relationship with Jesus, needs in our city and world, situations (professional, social, and personal), and even emotions within yourself. Anywhere and everywhere you know God’s Kingdom of love and peace is lacking, ask for Jesus to come.
“GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD”
Now spend a few minutes praying for specific needs and wants in your life or that of your community: a job, healing, wisdom to make a decision, bread for the hungry body, or life for the starving soul — anything and everything is on the table.
LISTENING PRAYER
Before moving along to the final movement, ask God what He wants to bring to mind for you. Galatians 5:25 reads, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
Sometimes, God surprises us with what or who he brings to mind in prayer. Simply ask, “Holy Spirit guide my prayers.”
Again, it can be helpful to sit up straight and open your hands on your lap in a posture of receiving. Whatever and whoever comes to mind, trust it is the Spirit’s guidance, and begin to pray for the person, place, or situation.
(15-20 MINUTES)
The final movement in prayer is to yield. Think of trusting or surrendering your prayers and your entire self to God.
“FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS”
Take a moment to ask God for forgiveness for specific areas in your life, and for releasing others to forgiveness. You may have specific people or situations come to mind, or you may just want to pray aloud the short phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on [__], a sinner like me.”_
“AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”
Finally, pray against temptation — this word can also be translated to trouble — in your life. Pray against any kind of evil — spiritual evil, human evil or oppression, systemic injustice, unhealed emotional wounds. Pray against bad things in your life or community, and ask for God’s blessing — the divine flow of good things into your life and community.
“FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY FOREVER AND EVER. AMEN.”
Close by reviewing your hour with God. What has he revealed to you? What has he brought back to mind? How has he met you? How have you noticed God at work in your life? In these closing words, we entrust the work God began in us during this hour back to Him. He is a God who finishes what He starts.
For additional resources go to www.prayercourse.org/toolshed.
Our Intercessory Prayer Team has created a Spotify playlist of some of our favorite worship songs. We hope it blesses you as you enter into worship during your time of prayer.