Praise and Prayer: A Lifestyle of Worship to God
Incorporating praise and prayer throughout your day will cultivate a lifestyle of worship.
Several years ago the Lord convicted me of compartmentalizing my time with Him.
I allocated specific time frames I set aside to meet with Him:
- I had a daily prayer time set aside to meet with the Lord and spend time in His Word.
- Church was every Sunday morning.
- I attended Bible study once a week.
While those are all good things, It was as though I put my time with the Lord in a box.
Our God is the King of kings and Lord of lords; He doesn’t belong in a box of any kind.
Especially when it comes to our relationship with Him.
I had good intentions and a pure motive, but the Lord showed me clearly that He wanted to revolutionize my prayer life in such a way that He wouldn’t be just a part of my day.
I needed to shift my mindset from designated specific times to allowing Him to be at the forefront of my thoughts the entire day.
I continued to have a quiet time intentionally set aside to meet with Him, but I had a new intent to keep Him at the center of my thoughts and affections throughout my day.
This goal was accomplished not by recalibrating my daytimer, but by allowing Him to saturate my thoughts, attitudes, and actions.
Ultimately the issue wasn’t my time — It was my heart.
There’s a massive difference in that perspective.
The Lord revealed to me that He’s not just a part of my life… He IS MY LIFE, and He wanted me to adjust my perspective and attitude accordingly.
He desires the same from you, my friend.
This post discusses how God’s people can integrate praise and prayer throughout their day as they strive to keep the Lord their focus and at the center of their lives.
How does the Bible define the worship of God?
This is a question that could be more adequately answered in a book, not a blog post, but I’ll try my best to offer a Cliff’s Notes version of the answer. (Are Cliff’s Notes even still around? I’m not sure, but they were when I was in college!)
True worship always focuses completely on who God Is.
Worship is a theme woven throughout Scripture, and the demonstration of worship varied drastically from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, whose death and resurrection canceled the need to offer sacrifices on behalf of sin, atoned for our sins and gave us the promise of eternal life through Him.
The moment Jesus died the veil of the temple was torn in two – from the top to the bottom. For the first time, (since the Garden of Eden when sin entered the world) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ welcomed all people to come into His presence.
The God of the Universe invites us and wants us to come before Him, pour out our hearts to Him, and worship Him.
God forgive us for our often casual composure in response…
All living creatures are under the sovereign rule of our Creator God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
Our God is sovereign, holy, and righteous.
The attributes of God set Him apart and there is none like Him; we stand in awe of His great power and magnificence.
Angels bow before Him, and we have the honor of doing the same.
All glory, honor, and praise are due to Him, and He alone is worthy of our worship.
The highest heavens belong to the Lord, and the whole earth is under His sovereign reign and rule.
Worship is more than something we do on a Sunday morning and more than a collection of songs of praise, or declarations of God’s greatness — worship encompasses so much more than those things.
As John MacArthur says, “Worship is not defined by a place, a feeling, or a ritual.”
Worship is a posture of heart and state of mind that strives to exalt the Lord and put Him at the center of our thoughts and affections.
It’s a disposition of humility bowing with admiration and adoration for the One true God, being stirred to our core with wonder, awe, and delight in response to who He is.
It’s being fascinated with His character, enthralled with His beauty, and astonished with reverence in an appropriate fear of him… overwhelmed by the great things He has done, continues to do, and will do.
Jesus said, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
Authentic worship must be in spirit and in truth.
In Spirit – Individuals who have come to a place where they acknowledge their sinful state and need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ and proclaim him to be their Savior have the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables and empowers them to worship God through the truth of Jesus Christ.
In truth – This is not what we deem to be true, not what the latest addition of any periodical says, and not what any other person says, but authentic truth in Jesus Christ as stated in Scripture.
How can we demonstrate our praise to Jehovah God?
Our whole heart striving to be devoted to the Lord coupled with a mind grounded in truth is expressed in authentic worship and can be demonstrated in various ways.
Choosing to obey God’s Word and align our beliefs, actions, and decisions to it can be an act of worship.
Romans 12:1-1 says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Our words are one way to express worship when we pray, sing, and maybe even dance to worship songs, but as the above verse suggests, countless other acts can fall under the umbrella of worship.
Anything we do, when done unto the Lord, can be offered as an act of worship.
Anything.
- Forgiving someone who hurt you deeply.
- Praying for someone who persecutes you.
- Scrubbing the kitchen floor.
- Cooking dinner for your family.
- Changing a diaper.
- Going to a job that you may enjoy, for whatever reason.
- Resisting sin and surrendering to the authority of the Holy Spirit to resist temptation.
The mundane can become a magnificent offering of worship when done in humility, submission, and keeping the Lord your focus while serving Him.
Emotion or circumstance should not be the driving force of worship.
It’s so easy to be preoccupied with the pressing demands of our lives, and our perspective remains horizontal.
- Our health
- Our family’s needs
- Daily Tasks
- Work situations
- Financial needs
All of these are important needs, but when it comes to worship, we need to lift our gaze and shift our focus vertically, on our Lord.
If we allow our feelings, situations, or circumstances to determine whether or not we worship, that’s a self-centered, self-serving decision.
Worship is not about us.
Authentic worship requires our focus to be entirely on our Lord.
Emotions
Our emotions cannot be the determining factor or driving force in our praise of God.
If we chose to praise Him only when we feel like it, when we’re happy or joyful, or when we’re in the mood then once again we’d be following a self-centered mindset.
Sometimes we flat out won’t feel like praising the Lord.
Our emotions can change from one second to the next, but our God’s character remains steadfast.
He was, is, and always will be worthy of our adoration and praise – despite how we feel.
Circumstances
God is no more worthy of praise when our situation is according to our liking, and times when it seems our world is falling apart.
Once again – worship is not about us.
Hebrews 13:15 tells us, “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving things to his name.”
Notice the word continually in the verse above?
- Our physical body may cry out with sickness, pain, or weariness.
- We may be emotionally weary or in turmoil.
- Our world is seemingly in chaos
- Our personal struggles may be intense, painful, or maybe even hard to bear.
When we choose to shift our focus from our surroundings to our faithful God, bow our hearts before Him, yield our will to him, and choose to exalt the name of Christ Jesus – we’re offering a sacrifice of praise.
Integrating prayer throughout our day
When the Lord is at the forefront of our minds, we can’t help but have it spill out in our thoughts, words, and actions.
We can and should offer prayers of adoration integrated throughout our day, but a posture of prayer includes all types of prayer such as:
- Confessing and repentance when we recognize that we turned away from God’s way and will during our day.
- Prayers expressing our gratitude for the Lord’s blessings and favor In our lives.
- Requests and asking the Lord to move on our behalf.
- Asking the Lord to speak to us as the prophet Samuel did, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
- Prayers crying out for wisdom, discernment, knowledge, and direction.
- Prayers for spiritual battle.
By incorporating prayer and praise throughout our daily life, we acknowledge the truth of Acts 17:28, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Our entire way of life can be all about Him!
When the Lord began to convict me of my time with Him being compartmentalized, my shift of focus didn’t come easily or immediately.
I asked the Lord to help me be mindful of Him…
- In the midst of three babies under my feet, cooking, cleaning, and a laundry room that often looked like it threw up on itself more often than not.
- In the midst of going to work, gathering with family and friends, and running errands.
- In the midst of baseball practice, carpools, and PTO meetings.
- In the midst of doctor appointments, hospital visits, and sicknesses,
It was a process, but I started to see Him in everything… which is accurate because HE IS IN THE MIDST OF EVERYTHING!
It started to become more natural for me to talk about the Lord in my conversations with other people and testify to who He is – because He was on my mind and in my thoughts!
The things we think about will inevitably pour out from our hearts to our mouths.
I also asked the Lord for wisdom to open my eyes to see and seize moments when I can authentically model this intentional way of thinking for my children.
We prayed every time a police, ambulance, or firetruck passed us on the street. We’d pray for our safety as we drove. Ask for wisdom in how we would spend our money before shopping. While picking blueberries I’d share with them how we bear fruit in our lives.
Please hear me when I say to you that many times I missed opportunities and I didn’t always get it right when I was distracted, tired, frustrated, or frantic while trying to keep my head above water while running in circles and getting caught up in “life”.
I didn’t get it right every time…
But I tried.
Perfect segue to the next point.
Praise is our goal – not perfection!
If I had the ability to make a sentence flash like a neon sign on this screen it would be this statement:
PERFECTION IS NOT OUR GOAL!!!
We’re human. God has not called us to an unattainable goal of perfection, but he has called us to wholehearted devotion to Him.
There is a huge difference between those two expressed goals!
We’re going to mess up. We’re going to fall short. We will miss opportunities. We’ll even blow it at times.
God’s great mercy, lavish grace, and unconditional love will meet us when we do.
God’s Word is extremely practical! Living a life of worship is possible right where you are and how you are!
We don’t have to leave our homes and flee to the hills in isolation in order to live a life of worship!
In our homes, our families, our workplaces, and in the immediate sphere of influence where the Lord has placed us by his sovereign hand, we can live a life of worship.
God is the One who draws, transforms, and sanctifies us.
The Lord God Almighty is the one who ultimately pursues us, and without the drawing of the Holy Spirit, no one can come to him. (John 6:44)
Even our desire to seek Him is from Him!
There’s a choice we make to:
- Place ourselves in a position where we choose to cry out to him in prayer.
- Take purposeful steps to align our direction with the Word of God and seek His face.
- Recognize any idols we may have erected in our lives that we’ve been worshipping and then repent from idolatry.
But we must never forget the truth of James 1:17 that tells us any good thing we have, are, or are able to accomplish is all through Him and from His right hand.
That includes being more in love with Jesus, having our minds renewed, and being conformed more like Jesus!
It’s all from Him and for His glory – all the more reason to praise His glorious name!
We need to tear down any idols in our life
We’ve been created with an instinct to worship, and everyone is worshiping something.
An idol in our life can be anything, person, pursuit, or passion we place at the center of our affection.
Idolatry can creep into our lives very easily, and we’ll all struggle in this area in different ways to bow to the authority of something other than Jesus.
Our Father God desires our hearts to be devoted to Him – not divided.
I’d love to stop here for another deep dive with you!
Wholly Devoted is an in-depth Bible study I wrote that focuses heavily on worship and idolatry, and you may find it helpful if you’d like to study this subject more.
We can offer a prayer of praise
There are countless examples of prayers of praise throughout Scripture. Just a few examples off the top of my head include:
- The eruption of spontaneous praise at God’s deliverance when Miriam led the women in dance after being delivered by the splitting of the sea.
- Outbursts of praise when the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
- The Book of Psalms is chock full of expressions of praise.
- Job when his world was falling apart choosing to worship His God.
- Mary and her extravagant demonstration of worship when she anointed the feet of Jesus with nard.
How I would love to stop right here and explore each of those demonstrations of worship with you, but for our purposes today take note that each of the above was a beautiful picture of worship when people chose to exalt the Lord, focused on Him, and humbled themselves.
For each of them, those encounters happened during their day, and they chose to respond with prayer and praise.
Centuries later, you and I get to choose the same.
I pray for you often as I write. As I close this article I’d be honored to pray for you.
“Come, let us sing for Joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all God’s. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for He made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” (Psalm 95: 1-6)
Heavenly Father would you give us a desire to have you infiltrate and permeate our focus and affections in such a way that our lives would be driven to honor you in all we think, say, and do. Give us a heart that’s devoted to you with a desire to worship you alone. Forgive us for the idols we’ve allowed to creep into our lives. Help us to tear down those idols and put you on the throne of our hearts. Give us a desire to incorporate prayer and praise throughout our days. It is in your holy name we ask these things – knowing you alone are worthy of all our praise and adoration. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen
Really liked the point you made about the curtain being torn from top to bottom on the day Jesus died. I’ve always thought the curtain being torn was just a sign that Jesus was in fact the son of God. But never thought of the fact that it also symbolized his tearing a barrier that kept people from approaching him.
Yes the implication of the veil being torn is simply awesome. The people gathered must have been awestruck when this occurred; only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place prior to this moment, and he entered with fear and trembling. So glad you enjoyed this post! Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment! 🙂