Spirit Lead Me-Worship Day 9

Day 9 Worship Through Prayer

"When we pray, we worship God by  aligning our will with His." SRT

Matthew 6:5-6
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

This chapter goes on with a key teaching in verses 14-15.

"If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Last week there was a small altercation on our dock between two very young men.  One had hit the other.  More than likely there had been some provocation. Any way...I inquired of the one who had been hit.  What do you think a suitable punishment would be?  He thought and replied, "Take Christmas away from him!"  I agreed and just as the offender was beginning to cry, I said to the first young man who had been hurt...Now understand, the next time you do something wrong your punishment will be what you have chosen.  You will lose Christmas!  "NO!" a scream was uttered.  Then what do you suggest? I asked.  "I choose to forgive him," he quickly said.  "Very good choice.  We are so fortunate that Jesus has done the same for us," I informed him.

There was peace.  Peace comes from doing things God's way. It also comes when we pray.

"Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel." Philippians 4:6-7

Whatever comes our way today, let's choose to worship God through prayer to Him.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  Matthew 6:9-13
    

"When We Pray" by Tauren Wells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YZZzgJB33E

Kimberly Girard has written a beautiful peace on worshipping through prayer for SRT.

Prayer is coming to my Father as a needy child, acknowledging my inability to change situations or people or my own heart, and then acknowledging that God is mighty and that He reigns, ascribing worth to the Lord for who He is. 

In Psalm 44, this kind of worship is modeled for us. Here, the psalmist is very real with his emotions. His plea is raw with vulnerability. He feels abandoned, yet he begins and ends the psalm in recognition of God’s faithful love for His people. Despite feeling rejected and forgotten, he comes back to what he knows to be true: God is faithful. 

This is just one way prayer blesses, or “rewards,” us. When we turn to God in prayer, we are reminded of who He is and who we are not. There is relief in remembering that we are not the center of all things—not even our own lives. He is. And as He recenters us, He is able to do serious work in our hardened hearts as only He can, bringing peace when we feel fraught with anxiety.

Of course, the ultimate reward of prayer is being in relationship with the Lord Himself. Prayer can be a form of worship because engaging in prayer reminds us that He is in our midst, in the details of our lives. “God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Regardless of our circumstances, He is sovereign. 

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love” (Psalm 103:8). God knows our desperate need of Him, even when we don’t acknowledge it ourselves. He says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). His presence alone is the perfect balm to our weary souls.

Prayer is an open invitation to relationship with God. It’s not always going to look pretty because we’re sinful, a broken and messy people. But Jesus’s blood covers all our sin—past, present, and future. He sees us in secret, knows the depths of our hearts, and loves us still.