Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Prayer - Glorifying God!

"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."  - I still remember learning this catechism truth as a child and yet, somehow, when I start praying, I quickly fall into rattling off all the needs I might have or others have asked me to pray for. I don't stop and first consider who this is I am praying to. I take God for granted!
The Psalmist says in Psalm 63:3 "Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips shall praise You." I need to start my prayers expressing praise to God for His steadfast, unending and undeserved love to me - a fragile, inconsistent, fallible being. The God of the universe - the awesome, all powerful, all knowing and ever listening God - is the one who hears my words and sees the condition of my heart even as I come before Him.
As I start to praise and glorify God - expressing truth about Him as revealed by God Himself in His Word - my own needs seem to melt away into insignificance and they are replaced with a calm assurance in my spirit that He has heard my heart-needs even though I have not yet expressed them and that He will answer in His own time and manner because He loves me with an unending love!
"To praise God is to prize God" (Eastman). Do I value, esteem and cherish Him enough? Do I 'prize' God? If I do, it will be the first thing that comes out in my prayers because it will flow out of a heart brimming over with thankfulness and love. Soli Deo gloria!

2 comments:

  1. It can be so easy to treat God like a vending machine sometimes hey? that why I'm not so keen on the 'Jesus is my Homeboy' shirts, because I think takes away from God's reverance, while Its easy to say 'Jesus is my Homeboy', in reality, if God physically came into my room right now, I wouldnt be calling him my homeboy but be flat on my face in reverence.

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  2. I fully agree with you! Unfortunately this healthy 'fear of God' is a forgotten truth today. Jesus gets called the 'Big J' and God 'The Big Guy in the Sky'! Us puny little mites on earth forget that we are living before and coming in prayer before the Almighty Creator of the universe! He gives us the very breath in our lungs and then we want to "tell" God what we want and order requests from Him and His celestial e-store?? It is only when we try to understand God's utter holiness and our utter helplessness and sinfulness without His intervening mercy, that we can come in true humility before Him in prayer and leave our requests before His mercy seat and His promise of an eternal love towards us. Prayer can never be flitting and thoughtless!

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