Guide 4: Midday Prayer
A Prayer Shaped Life, 2025
Review the practice so far (10 min)
In this series, we are focusing on the practice of Prayer—the slow-growing, sweet-tasting fruit of communion with God over the long haul. In the last Guide, we agreed on our exercise for the week ahead: praying Scripture. So let’s talk about how that went!
What did you experience as you made space for morning prayer this last week?
As you’ve been leaning into the practice of Prayer these last few weeks, have you noticed any small shifts in your heart, habits, or attention?
Guide overview (2 min)
As we explored last week, so much is competing for our attention, which is one of the most significant resources we can steward. If we’re not careful, this bombardment of noise can overtake us like a flood, sweeping away our time, energy, and attention in its fast-moving current. This attempt to distract us and pull apart our focus is an age-old problem. And, for millennia, God’s people combatted it by ordering their days by communion with God, stopping at multiple times each day to pray.
Following in this tradition, Bridgetown’s Daily Prayer Rhythm aims at building a habit of communing with God in the normal parts of our lives, so that we can grow in intimacy with him and participate in his coming Kingdom in and around us. We stop to pray with intention and specificity three times a day: praying Scripture in the morning, praying compassion at midday, and praying the Examen in the evening. We looked at morning prayer last week; and up for tonight is midday prayer.
Exercise for tonight (30 min)
For tonight, we’ll engage in the practice of Prayer through the exercise of letting compassion move us to intercession. The middle of the day is often when we’re most tempted to turn towards ourselves—to space out or numb out. And it’s then that we choose to pause, steer our focus away from our computers, chores, schoolwork, or laundry, and towards others—the sick and dying, the lost and wandering, the poor and those struggling with addiction. We pause at midday to ask the Spirit to bring to mind someone in need, asking him to provide—salvation, rent money, friendship, help, etc.—and then asking him to send us as an answer to our own prayers.
As we practice this tonight, we are going to take some time to let compassion stir us to intercede for the three categories of people we talked about on Sunday—the lost, the lowly, and the lively—and then end by asking God to send us to be his compassion to these people. Here’s how it will work. We will work through each category, one at a time. I will invite the Spirit to bring to mind people for whom to pray, and then we will take time to pray out loud for them one at a time. As we do, let’s pray with trust and hope, remembering that our Father in Heaven is a good giver. And, let’s be sure that our prayers protect their dignity by not using names or identifiers where doing so would reveal something sensitive or private.
Come, Holy Spirit. Teach us how to let your compassion guide our intercessions.
(Leader note: Give people about 30 seconds in silence to settle in.)
Pray for the lost. God, each of us knows people who are far from you—those who are searching for home, for safety, and for rest. Even now we ask that you would bring a name or face to our mind, that we might pray for them to know your loving presence and salvation.
(Leader note: Pause for 30 seconds, and then invite people to pray out loud one at a time. Give people about 5 minutes to pray and then move to the next prompt.)
Pray for the lowly. God, each of us knows people who are experiencing some level of pain—those who are vulnerable and hurting. Whether the pain is related to health, finances, relationships, or something else, we want to see you move on their behalf. Even now we ask that you would bring a name or face to our mind, that we might pray for them to know your loving presence in their need.
(Leader note: Pause for 30 seconds, and then invite people to pray out loud one at a time. Give people about 5 minutes to pray and then move to the next prompt.)
Pray for the lively. God, each of us knows people who seem to be growing in new ways—those in whom we can see signs of new life. They could be experiencing new life in their relationship with God, or taking vocational risks, or having a baby, or something else. Even now we ask that you would bring a name or face to our mind, that we might pray for them to know your loving presence as they are on the cusp of new life.
(Leader note: Pause for 30 seconds, and then invite people to pray out loud one at a time. Give people about 5 minutes to pray and then close with the following prayer.)
Holy Spirit, thank you for the way you moved your compassion in us. As we have asked you to meet these people with your loving presence, we now ask that you would send us to be your loving presence. If there is any way that you would like to use us as answers to our own prayers, please show us how. Thank you. Amen.
Reflect & Plan. The exercise for the week ahead is to pray compassion at midday each day this week—inviting God to show you one person from one of those categories to pray for. So we’re going to get into smaller groups and spend 10 minutes reflecting and planning with two prompts:
What was it like for you to let compassion stir your intercession tonight?
How and when are you going to pray compassion at midday this week?
(Leader note: Let people get into smaller groups to discuss. Afterwards, call everyone together to read the exercise for the week ahead.)
Exercise for the week ahead (3 min)
Tonight we explored the midday prayer portion of Bridgetown’s Daily Prayer Rhythm. For the week ahead, we are all going to continue practicing praying compassion on our own:
Midday prayer: This week, we’re each going to pause at midday to pray compassion. We will pause for just a few moments in the middle of our day (setting alarms or reminders on your phone can be so helpful for this) to ask the Spirit to guide our attention towards a person or people for whom he is inviting us to pray. This could be praying for friends who don’t know Jesus, neighbors in need, people who are experiencing the grief of loss, or anyone else who needs to experience God’s compassion. Also, the midday prayer section of the Lectio365 app is an incredible, free resource that will guide you in the practice of praying compassion. And, consider continuing your morning prayer rhythm of praying Scripture each day as well.
