Praise and worship is to confess the truth about God’s nature and His greatness towards us. This will sustain a faith in Him and His power. We saw this when considering the Lord’s Prayer as it starts with worshipping the nature of God.
We can see several prayers in the Bible containing praise despite the fact that the circumstances did not call for it. One example to begin with is a Psalm written by David, Psalm 69. He starts by stating his own situation, which is also important
Psalm 69:2-3
2I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
3I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
But he does not stop with the statement of His own situation. Despite his condition he says in the end of the Psalm
Psalm 69:31,34-36
31This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.
34Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them,
35for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it;
36the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.
Another person in the Bible confessing God’s promises even though everything had gone wrong is Habakkuk
Hab 3:17-19
17Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
When can also look at some prayers in the New Testament. In acts we read what the first Christians prayed when they encountered problems
Acts 4:24-31
24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" `Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Here they start by putting the focus on God’s greatness. When they get to the problem, they also confess how God will work it out.
When Paul and Silas where thrown beaten and naked in the deepest dungeon they did not mourn and complain when they prayed. They did not sing “Why have you o’ Jesus thrown us to jail where there is so much suffering? We are in terrible shape. Why us?” Instead they sang praise songs,
Acts 16:22-34:
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.
As we can see in these last two scriptures there is power in praise. This is real spiritual warfare. Many think that spiritual warfare is to talk to daemons, but to worship God is the most powerful thing we can do. And as mentioned: Then one you worship, you empower. And when you worship God you empower Him to do what He wants.
Be encourage
Be encourage my friend to pray, that is the most exiting thing we can do as Christians (and actually all human, for the one that call upon the name of the Lord will be saved). And remember that prayer is all about relationship, relationship to the one that has created us. Don’t forget this, because then your prayer will be boring and without any power and you will become legalistic about prayer.
