Weekly Prayer Thought

I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Psalm 145.1-2

Sometimes I think that praising God is the most difficult part of prayer. I love the Lord and I am glad for all that he has done for me, but some times its difficult to put that into words. Praise often comes out sounding artificial, to my ears anyway. The problem with praise is that it asks us to worship God for who he is. And God is a mystery. That makes it tricky.

Thanking God is much easier. We can point to the things that God has done for us and express our gratitude for those things. The benefits that we have received from God are limitless. We can thank him for things that he has given us, ways in which he supports us, for answers to prayer and even for answers to prayer that have not come yet. When we think about it, thanking God is an enjoyable experience and relatively easy.

Praising God is no less important than thanking him, however. We can offer praise by simply telling God how much we love him. We can praise him by recognizing our dependence on his grace and care. We can praise God sometimes by just being silent and enjoying his presence. We can praise God by singing him a worship song, or reading him a favorite Psalm. It may require a little bit of effort, but praising God is worth it.

PRAYER: We offer you praise and worship, Oh Lord. You are great and greatly to be praised. We honor you for who you are. You are higher than all we know, and yet you care and love us. We love you, Lord Jesus. We offer you all glory and honor and blessing and power and majesty and might, now and forever. Amen.