Prayer is a form of true worship. It’s to look to God as the provider and sustainer of my life. It’s to acknowledge my dependency on Him and a true need for Him. David wrote in Psalm 70:5, “But I am poor and needy. God, come quickly to me. You are the One who helps me and saves me. LORD, please don’t wait any longer. Then again we read how the song writer even sings His prayer to God in Psalm 109:26, “Please help me, LORD God! Come and save me because of your love.” King Jehoshaphat was under attack by a three kingdom coalition. He was greatly outmanned, outnumbered and under equipped. So what did he do? In 2Chronicles 20:3-4, we read “Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he decided to ask the Lord what to do. The entire country of Judah united in seeking God’s help — they came from all the cities to pray to God.” This is true worship and the Psalmist in Psalm 105:4 puts that together for us clearly when he said, “Go to the Lord for help and worship Him continually.”

My four year old grandson is just learning how to pray. He is going to become a preacher because he doesn’t know when to stop. He begins with God bless Bob. (Bob is their tom cat) and goes on and with God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Granma & Papa, etc, etc. Then he moves in to the thank you phase of his prayer and there’s no limiting the items he’s thankful for! It’s a real joy to hear him pray, but one day he’ll grow up and we should teach him that there’s really more to prayer than just asking God for blessings and thanking him for those he’s already given us. I find myself falling into that same routine.

Prayer is an approach to God. Habakkuk offered one of the most effective prayers in the Bible and one of the most important aspects of His prayer was adoration. He writes, “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.” Worship is acknowledging God’s true worth, his “worth-ship.” It is reviewing his greatness for our own benefit; that we might renew of mental image of Him. I often have difficulty with this aspect of worshipful prayer. The late James Boice recommends an acrostic to help us remember the worshipful aspects of our prayer life. It’s A C T. A is for adoration. C is for confession. T is for thanksgiving, and S is for supplication. He suggests, “In this acrostic, adoration rightly comes first and should dominate any normal prayer, with each of the other items (particularly the last) taking progressively less time. But what often happens is quite different. We rush through the first part of our prayer (“Oh, Lord, we thank you that you are a wonderful God and that you sent Jesus to die for us …”) but then settle down on the requests (“Lord, here are sixteen things I want from you”).” Habakkuk prayer begins with adoration and I expect ours should also. That might even change what we pray for. If we focus on God’s greatness first our requests might change. It may help us align our requests with His will. God would say “YES” to all our prayers that way.

Chuck
“You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand You!” 2 Chronicles 20:6