P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
A woman has a beautiful sacrifice for Jesus in our passage today.
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
Lord, by your Spirit would you allow me to enter into Passion Week alongside you? As you walk the road that for me, open my eyes to all that you suffered. As I see your suffering would you show me how loved I am by you and that you would endure all of this for me? Seal these affections deep in my heart and transform me through them.
I choose to rejoice, with all God’s people, in the powerful promise that God gives us in Matthew 5:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8
As you read the passages below, ask the Lord to cause a word or phrase to stand out to you.
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:6-13
As I reread the passage, I reflect on the questions, “How is my life touched by this word?” and “How does this passage connect with my life?”
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:6-13
Jesus spent his nights in the town of Bethany, which was located on the other side of the Mount of Olives. He sits down to have dinner with his disciples at Simon the Leper’s house as the wicked religious leaders are scheming and planning a way to arrest and kill Jesus without causing a riot. As they are having dinner a woman does something truly remarkable She enters the room and takes out an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and she pours it all out on Jesus. Everyone in the room was indignant because of the presumed waste of such an expensive item. The Book of Mark tells us that it could have been sold for “more than a year’s wages”. Some scholars describe it as her entire life’s savings, because of the difficult life that women had in the 1st century. To Jesus though it wasn’t a waste. This woman was showing her devotion to her Savior one last time. Some have theorized that she did this because she believed that Jesus was going to die and she didn’t believe that the chief priests would allow Jesus to have a proper burial. The utter devotion this woman has for her Savior is astounding.
Lord, show me the beauty of your sacrifice. Give me the heart that this woman had for you. A heart that was utterly devoted to you and the beauty of what you did for us.
Lord, of all weeks to manifest your presence through the Holy Spirit would it be this Passion Week? Pour out your Spirit on this nation. Open our eyes to a Savior who was crushed and resurrected for weary sinners. Wake those who have fallen asleep. For those stuck in guilt and shame show them that you are the Savior who was crucified in order to set them free. Pour out the same Spirit on us that raised Christ from the dead, so that you may have all the glory.
As I read the passage for the final time, I listen for how the Lord is inviting me to respond to him. Where in my life do I need to yield in obedience to what he has for me?
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:6-13
Yielding Prayer
Jesus, let my life be like this woman. Would you transform me so that the actions of my life match the beauty of your sacrifice? Whatever you call me to sacrifice for you let my obedience be a swift response.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Isaiah 53:
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:4-6
Closing Prayer
Lord, enable me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to love you today with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to serve you today, by loving and caring for others as I do my own self; and, to exalt you today, by telling the people in my world about the abundant and eternal life found only through faith in Jesus.
*The P.R.A.Y. acronym has been adapted from the Lectio 365 app.