Worship Through Prayer
Open Your Bible
Matthew 6:5-15, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 44:1-26
BY Guest Writer
Last night when I got into bed, I was completely wrecked by my sin—my selfishness in not loving my husband and children well, my discontentment, my quickness to anger, my quickness to speak out of anger… I could go on. And as I cried, I finally cried out to the Lord. I had been in the middle of writing this devotion on prayer, and yet turning to Him was not my first reaction. But the Lord, who sees and knows the depth of my sin much better than I do, met me and reminded me that He sees me in all my mess and loves me still. Indeed, there is great reward in prayer (Matthew 6:6).
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.
Kimberly Girard is a well-loved child of God, wife of an extraordinary man, mother of three amazing kids, and writer living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find her at Loud Singing and on Twitter.
53 thoughts on "Worship Through Prayer"
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God sees everything in you and what you can be. He never turns away from us just because we have failed. He’s always there for us waiting for us to come back to Him. Reminding ourselves everyday that even if we fall He loves us and wants a relationship with us is important. Hopefully I can remember this everyday all day.
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Prayer is difficult for some. It awknowledges believing in something greater than yourself. Prayer helps me to see the beauty in the world and the imperfections of me. Knowing Jesus, has helped guide me to grow in my life. And prayer is helping me to remember that God has got me, just like he has those that I care for. He hears my prayers for those that don’t believe but are near to my heart. I love this one prayer that my mom gave me a necklace of with it inscribed on the back, it read, ” God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” It’s a prayer I cling to when there are things I wish could change like some people’s hearts, or circumstances. It helps me understand that God hears and meets me where I am bringing me peace that He has the love and power to change others through the example I set. To see what God can do through me. To learn to love like Jesus and be guided by the Holy Spirit.
I pray for my friend Katie, for God to put his Heart on her. For her eyes to open and her heart to grow.
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I think the psalmist who wrote Psalm 44 was definitely a Type 8 on the enneagram, if I had to guess! Coincidentally, that’s also my type and, boy, do Jesus and I have some talking to do. It’s interesting how the psalmist acknowledged the past and the faithfulness of God. But this is the first psalmist or even author that I can think of in the Bible that basically says, “What the ****, God??? What did we do to deserve this??”
The answer to that is everything, to be honest. We did everything to deserve his wrath and be abandoned and left to our own. That’s a type 8’s worst nightmare. But God, He is gracious and loving enough to adopt us as children though we can be rotten spoiled brats at times. And he trains us up as saints. So my prayer is that PRAYER would be my worship today as I am made more and more to be a saint for Him each day.-
Michelle, what a great way to relate the Bible and it’s characters to us! I think your comment brought another dimension to the scripture I read this and allowed me to think about what would this be like if people today were saying these things.
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How great is the power of prayer! Pray for your family, your friends, your neighbors, yourself and our Father! And keep praying and you will see that he hears you, he understands you and he will respond you!
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Beautifully written! I know a lot of times we feel like our prayers have to perfect and we can’t come to God with our raw emotions. Yet, as we look at Psalm 44 we see the Psalmist expressing his very real emotions. They are not happy and joyful but raw emotions of being upset.
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