Praying the Psalms

Break into exactly groups of 4. Then get some space between you and other groups.

As we continue to have these monthly prayer meetings, one of the goals of them is to put tools and ideas for prayers in your toolbox that you can use anytime when you are talking to God. If you’ll look at your handout you see four ideas we are going to cover in prayer tonight, and I’m sure many of you are overachievers and already figured out there’s an acronym in there that spells out the word PRAY. These four ideas are not exclusive to the Psalms as our title reflects but rather I selected a handful of Psalms that could guide us in praying through these ideas tonight. Psalms has been referred to as the prayer book of the Bible, and often I find that as I’m reading and studying the Psalms they inspire me to pray similars prayers but that might sound a little bit more like what’s going on in my world in this particular season. The pattern in which we are praying tonight is simply a repackaging of the Lord’s prayer.

I’m going to give you about a paragraph or two of teaching on each thought then we will practice it together.

Pause - Jesus said, “When you pray” To start we must stop. To move forward we must pause. This is the first step in a deeper prayer life: Put down your wish list and wait. Sit quietly. Become fully present in place and time so that your scattered senses can recenter themselves on God’s eternal presence. Stillness and silence prepare your mind and primer your heart to pray from a place of greater peace, faith, and adoration.

Everyone in here tonight is going to read and pray outloud so if that’s a little tough for you we understand but let God stretch you tonight. So right now let’s take 60 seconds and have the first person in each group read the 3 verses in the Pause section outloud for their group.

Now 3 minutes of silence. I know but let’s do it.

Rejoice - Our Father in heave, hallowed be your name…

No one stares up at the northern lights thinking, Wow, I’m incredible! We are hardwired to wonder and therefore to worship. The Lord’s Prayer begins with an invitation to adoration: “Our Father in heave, hallowed be your Name.” Having paused to be still at the start of a prayer time, the most natural and appropriate response to God’s presence is reverence. Hallowing the Father’s name is the most important and enjoyable dimension of prayer. Linger here, rejoicing in God’s blessings before asking for any more. God designed you for worship.

2nd person in each group read Psalm 113:1-4 out loud for the group.

3 minutes of rejoicing…one word, phrase, or sentence at a time, just keep going around in the circle

Ask - Prayer means many things to many people, but at its simplest and most immediate, it means asking God for help. It’s a soldier begging for courage, a football fan at the super bowl, a mother alone in a hospital chapel. The Lord’s prayer invites us to ask God for everything from daily bread to the kingdom come, for ourselves in the way of petition, and for others in the way of intercession.

3rd person in each group read Psalm 86:1-7 out loud for the group.

3 minutes of asking in the same way we rejoiced, Push them to lean in here.

Yield - The final step in the dance of prayer is surrender. More important that claiming Jesus’ authority in a matter with phrases such as in Jesus’ name, often the greatest prayer we can pray is one word. It is the word yes where God asks us to do something, and no where He tells us not to. Yielding in prayer must be accompanied by real life transformation it’s a clenched fist slowly opening; an angry father saying sorry to His wife and children, It’s letting go of control of the situation that you think only you can fix, even though you haven’t fixed it yet. We yield to God’s presence “on earth as in heaven” through contemplative prayer and by listening to his Word which is our daily bread. We yield to God’s holiness through confession and reconciliation, praying Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sing against us. And we yield to his power in spiritual warfare, asking our Father to deliver us from evil. And so in all these ways, it’s by surrendering to God that we overcome, by emptying ourselves that we are filled, and by yielding our lives in prayer that our lives themselves become a prayer - The Lord’s prayer.

In this Psalm that the 4th person in each group is about to read we do not yield to evil, we yield to His Word and His provision, and then He causes us to yield the fruit of the Spirit that prospers both us, others, and the kingdom.

4th person in each group read Psalm 1:1-4 out loud for the group.

3 minutes of asking for forgiveness, for protection, perhaps surrender something to God during this time. Just begin to speak to Him about how you want to commit more of yourself to him.

Ask Colton/Jeremy to come

And tonight we have prayed.

Specific prayer for Tom over someone by Pastor David?

Worship out.