How To Praise God In Our Prayers
“Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 117
We all know that February is the month of love. As we begin this month, I can’t help but think of my love for Christ. I have been reflecting on how I show God love and how I am teaching my children to show their Savior love. One way we show God love is through the communication of prayer. My daughter is learning about prayer in her school, and I shared with her the acronym I use for prayer.
P-praise, R-repent, A-ask for others, Y-yourself. This is such a simple way to remember the important order of praying. God comes first, then cleansing of yourself so that you can go before the Lord, praying for others, and lastly, taking your needs before God.
Our prayer life is a direct connection to God our Father and His Son. It is one of the things that bonds the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and our human nature together. I want to spend the next four weeks looking at our prayer life and how we show God love through it. This first week, we are going to concentrate on how we praise Him in our prayers.
God desires for us to have an intimate relationship with Him. The love we show God is a direct response of His love for us. We love God by spending time with Him, being near Him, listening to Him, reading His word, and seeking to know Him daily. Besides actively reading God’s word, we can do all these things through our prayer life.
We are all commanded to praise the Lord, mankind and nature. If that is a command, what does that look like?
The first thing we need to look at are the reasons we do praise God. We are praising God to express adoration or approval of who He is. We believe in who He is, who the Bible says He is, and who we will one day see face to face. We praise God for His traits, His works, and His character. As we ponder on these three things, we can think about His traits and His works that have affected us personally. Maybe you are a new Christian and God’s saving grace is fresh on your mind. Or you have fallen into a pit of sin, and you are in awe of His forgiving mercy. Maybe you are in a time of grief and His comfort and peace is enveloping you in this moment. Whichever trait or work of God that sticks out to each of us in each moment is an opportunity of praise.
One of my favorite ways to praise the Lord is by calling out His characteristics. I have placed a list of God’s characteristics at the bottom of this devotional. Just like God’s traits and works, each day in our life is touched by one or many of God’s characteristics. Just through the fact that we can pray to God shows His accessibility. When we take a walk on a beautiful day, we can praise Him as our Creator. And the truth that He will never leave us is worthy of our praise for His faithfulness. As you begin your prayer, simply call out these characteristics that stand out to you in the moment. He placed each of these characteristics in His people. Praise Him for placing certain characteristics in you. These are one of His many blessings to His people.
Other ways to praise the Lord is through acts of blessing, commending, honoring, thanking, celebrating, and rejoicing. It doesn’t matter how you choose to praise the Lord, there are no rules. What matters most is that you praise Him constantly. Praise is done regardless of what is going on around you.
There is something about praising God that makes everything else disappear. When we are focused solely on the Lord, our troubles are a distant cry. He becomes our main focus. We focus on His goodness, mercy, perfection, and faithfulness. We focus on His promises to His people and the fact that He is hearing our every word.
When we praise God, we are humbling ourselves before Him and placing Him on His throne. We are acknowledging who He truly is, the true reigning King. In the book of Nehemiah, we are told the Lord made the heavens and all their starry hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. Our creator gave life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship Him!
Digging Deeper:
How are you being called to worship the Lord?
How can you add more praise to God in your daily life?
How does praising God bring you closer to Him?