Day 8: Praise Prayer

“I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise Your name for ever and ever.”
Psalm 145:1

Building a prayer habit and endurance in prayer takes a little time. Praise God, you have made it to week two of learning how to pray! And you added quite a lot to your prayer plate already: You are getting up a little earlier, you are reading Psalms (a few a day, hopefully), you are praying throughout the day, you are praying at set times during the day, you memorized at least one prayer, and you confessed your sins. That’s an impressive prayer list for someone who just started praying a week ago. Keep up the good work!

Today we will learn how to use our prayers to praise God. Sometimes we get stuck and don’t have the words to praise God. For this, I suggest turning back to the Psalms you’ve been reading. Praise is just expressing your love to God,[1] and the Psalms are heavy with praise. Written praises to God that originally were set to music, both Jews and Christians have used them as prayers and meditations. While many psalms lean heavy on the praise, Psalm 145 is the only Psalm with the designation a “Psalm of Praise” in the superscription.

Prayerwork, Part 1: Read Psalm 145 and underline the descriptions of why we should praise God. Then write a few of the reasons to praise God found in verse eight, in the blanks below. Afterward, continue to follow the prayerwork instructions:

The LORD is _________________

What other reasons does Psalm 145 give us to praise God? Write three or four more reasons why God is worthy of praise below:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Prayerwork, Part 2: Continue throughout the day to use small prayers to continually turn your attention back to God. Tomorrow, prepare yourself to memorize a verse of Scripture by repeating it over and over again, until it sticks. And when your alarm goes off throughout the day, pray this prayer of praise out loud:

God, I praise You because you are gracious. God, I praise You because You are compassionate. God, I praise You because You are slow to anger. God, I praise You because You are rich in love. Thank you for being gracious and compassionate to me. I am growing in mercy and more ready to forgive others because You are rich in love toward me. In Jesus’s name, I pray, amen.

“My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise His holy name for ever and ever.”
Psalm 145:21

[1] Carey Nieuwhof, interview with Rick Warren, January 4, 2022, in CNLP 467: Rick Warren on Finishing Well, Why Megachurch Pastors Fail, and Lessons Learned Over 42 Years at Saddleback, podcast, website, 1:43:38, https://careynieuwhof.com/episode467.