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 songwriter 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 2 Chronicles 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 says, “Go to the Lord for help and worship Him continually.”

When my second grandson was four years old, he learned how to pray. I was convinced at the time that he was going to become a preacher because he didn’t know when to stop. He begins with God bless Bob. (Bob is their tom cat) and goes on, with God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Grandma & Papa, etc. Then he moves into 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. He kept his head bowed and his hands folded and just kept going. Although I enjoyed his prayers, I felt the need at the time to teach him that prayer should include more than just asking God for His blessings on our lives and thanking him for all He’s done for us. When I look at my own prayer life now, though, I find the same problem. I ask for blessings on people and thank God for all He’s done for us.

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 by reviewing his greatness for our own benefit that we might renew our 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 S. 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. In 2 Chronicles 20:6, we read another prayer, “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