by Emily Wooten
Praise is how we eliminate wasteful behavior. Communicating with the creator who is all powerful, all knowing, all present God should be very illuminating. We don’t want to waste our time with him chanting vain repetitious phrases. We want our words with him to be an expression of love and adoration from our heart.
The Psalms are a good example of praise to God. Prayer is essential. How are we to know the heart of God if we fail to seek the heart of God? One way we seek his heart is in prayer.
In prayer we come to God acknowledging his excellence. Our words are not to impress others who may hear us. Our words are formed to exalt Jesus as Lord of Lords in our life. We praise God for his love, mercy and mighty works but it is based on our experience with him. Who is God to us?
Have you known God to be a faithful savior and provider?
Sometimes by faith we celebrate God for who he is in scripture. We see what he did for others and understand that God is our God. He is the same and does not change.
As we enter into prayer communicating with God it is good to talk to him about the things we see in scripture. We can ask for understanding and as we talk with God, and listen for his answers, he reveals his plan for us.
Sometimes our prayer becomes a confession to God as we choose to embrace who he is. When the Hebrew’s faced the Red Sea in front and Pharaoh’s army behind they were forced to make a decision to trust God. They were told to stand still and see the salvation of God. You and I were not there. We didn’t time travel and see the miracle as they walked through on dry land but we choose to believe God did and they did. The same way we choose to accept that scripture as truth we can choose to accept and claim other scriptures as our truth.
Philippians 4:19 we see where Paul proclaimed, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness so we can be furnished or prepared to all good works. Trusting the scripture we can believe if God said it to the early church, he also included us with the rest of the body of Christ. That is our instructions too. We can take his words in 2 Timothy 3 and ask him to supply all our needs, thank him for supplying all our needs and expect God will supply all our needs. That is how we begin to know him as our provider.