Prayer and Praise

Praise- To ascribe value and worth (worth-ship), to exalt

With Thanksgiving just around the corner my thoughts have turned to praise.
Specifically, praise in prayer. (Our Sunday School class is doing a study on prayer)
So often when we come to God in prayer we are so intent on our needs (or wants) that we start in there and by the time we are finished with that, it's time to get up and get on with our day. We may rush through a couple of "thank you, Lord's" but if you were to chart out the ratio of time spent in asking God for things, important as they may be, verses time spent just praising, how would it look?
                          Praise should be the start and end of every prayer time.
Without praise, I have to wonder how focused we are on God instead of ourselves.
When we start our prayers in praise we are forced to take the focus of the prayer off ourselves and concentrate on Him alone. Praise makes sure we see ourselves in light of God, keeping us humble, and placing all glory on Christ, not ourselves. In other words, praise helps us keep the right perspective on things, even on our needs, as we pray.
The very purpose of prayer is to commune with God. To leave ourselves for a while and look to Him. To turn our eyes and hearts toward Him and leave the things of this world behind.
If we pray and the focus of our prayer is, "me, me, me". We miss the point. We miss the greatness of the One we are praying to.
Even in the prayers of trial, pain and sorrow the proper focus is on God. Praise in pain is placing those things at Jesus' feet, praising His ability to take care of them and releasing self and the situation to Him.
Prayer is the humbling of ourselves before Almighty God and the acknowledgment, through the very act of prayer, that we are needy and in total dependence upon Him for all things.
The very fact that we are so needy and dependant should cause us to break out in praise because there is One we can go to, who we so desperately need and He is abundantly willing and able to supply all of our needs-and more.
To pray and not praise is to rob yourself of the joy and blessing that come as a result of praise and it is robbing God of the glory due His name. He loves our praise. It is the most glorious music to His heart. Praise is beautiful.
Praise comes from a heart that believes God. That believes God is full of love and compassion, that He is able to do mighty things. It comes from a heart that is confident that He is all He claims to be. And most of all praise comes from a heart that believes we are unworthy to stand before Him- sinful and unclean (Isa  6:1-8)- but in Christ we, the unworthy, can come boldly before the only One who is worthy of our praise, fall at His feet and cry
          "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
                   You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power!"
Truly, when we contemplate God, we can do no other thing but praise.
There is much to praise Him for!
Praise for who He is His character, His attributes, His power
Praise for who we are in Him- because of Him Redeemed, forgiven, righteous, holy, loved
Praise for what He has given blessings, grace, mercy, freedom, gifts, protection, care
Praise for what He has done He has done many things, answered many prayers- but the greatest and most praiseworthy is the work of the cross. That alone should produce a lifetime of praise and worship and wonder.
May we always, along with David in so many Psalms, praise.
May it permeate our prayers.
May it accompany our thoughts.
May it resound from our lips, our heart- and our life.


                                   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!  Ps. 48:1