Guide 3: Morning 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: Incarnational Prayer. So let’s talk about how that went!
Who did God lead you to as you practiced Incarnated Prayer and what happened?
Guide overview (2 min)
Our attention is one of our most significant resources we can steward, and from the second we wake up, so much is vying for it—notifications, needs, news cycles, and noise. If we’re not careful, this bombardment can overtake us like a flood, sweeping away our time, energy, and attention in its fast-moving current. And while there are certainly newer ways our attention is being stolen—like social media, the international news cycle, and having our work email on our phones—the problem is ancient. For millennia, God’s people ordered their days by communion with God, stopping at multiple times each day to pray.
Following in this tradition, at Bridgetown we too have a Daily Prayer Rhythm, the goal of which is for each of us to build 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. For the next three weeks, we will focus on one of these movements, practicing it together each night we meet and practicing it on our own throughout the week. Up for tonight is morning prayer.
Exercise for tonight (30 min)
For tonight, we’ll engage in the practice of Prayer through the exercise of praying Scripture. We aim to pray Scripture each morning because we become like what we pay attention to, and because whatever we give our first attention to has exponential formative power in our lives. While any passage of Scripture can guide us in prayer, one of the most helpful is the prayer book for the early church: the Psalms. This compilation of prayers guided the prayers of the Old Testament Temple, Jesus himself, and the early church. Within the Psalms, we find the full array of human emotion on display, which makes them uniquely useful for prayer because they teach us how to pray more than what to pray. Praying the Psalms reminds us that whatever we’re feeling is safe with God. We don’t need to clean up or get our act together before coming into God’s presence; we can show up in prayer exactly as we are.
As we pray Scripture tonight, we’re going to use Psalm 84 as our guide. Here’s how it will work: I will read through it in three different sections, pausing to give us space between each to pray out loud one at a time. There is no right or wrong way to pray the Psalms, simply allow the psalmist’s words—in this case, the Sons of Korah—to guide our prayers. Maybe a word or image sparks a thought, or a feeling or emotion resonates, or maybe you want to echo something the authors actually pray themselves. Whatever it is, we’ll simply allow these words to guide our prayers as we pray out loud, one at a time. As we start, though, find a comfortable position, and we’ll take a moment in silence to become aware of God’s presence with us. And feel welcome to follow along in your own Bible, if that’s helpful.
Come, Holy Spirit. Teach us how to let the Scriptures guide our prayers.
(Leader note: Give people about 30 seconds in silence to settle in.)
Read Psalm 84v1–4. “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”
(Leader note: Give people about 5 minutes to pray.)
Read Psalm 84v5–9. “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.”
(Leader note: Give people about 5 minutes to pray.)
Read Psalm 84v10–12. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.”
(Leader note: Give people about 5 minutes to pray. Close in prayer, thanking God.)
Reflect & Plan. The exercise for the week ahead is to pray Scripture each morning. 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 pray Psalm 84 tonight?
How and when will you pray Scripture each morning this week?
(Leader note: Let people get into smaller groups to discuss. Set a timer for 10 minutes. After it goes off, call everyone together to read the exercise for the week ahead.)
Exercise for the week ahead (3 min)
Tonight we explored the morning prayer portion of Bridgetown’s Daily Prayer Rhythm. For the week ahead, we are all going to continue practicing praying Scripture on our own:
Morning prayer: This week, we’re all going to begin each day by praying Scripture, particularly the Psalms. Whichever Psalm you choose, simply read it and let it guide your prayers to begin your day. Also, the morning prayer section of the Lectio365 app is an incredible, free resource that will guide you in the practice of praying Scripture.
