Hi guys! I’ve been blogging a lot about prayer lately, but it’s because my pastor is going through the Lord’s Prayer at church and the sermons are really hitting me.

This past Sunday I felt God convicting me about my love for Him. The pastor talked about how the Lord’s Prayer starts with worship and adoration of God, which I’d heard before, but then he went on to talk about how this type of praise is an indiction of what’s most important.

If we only go to God in prayer when something is at risk, that means that thing is most important to us—more important than what God is to us. That really made me stop and think. I pray to God a lot about my writing and getting my work done, so does that mean I value my work more than I value my relationship with God?

All relationships take work—there aren’t any relationships we have that require no work whatsoever. So why do I slack off when it comes to my relationship with God?

I want to go to God in prayer just because I love Him, and not because I need something. It seems I always need something, and even though I don’t deserve it, God answers my prayers. But I should start my prayer to Him with praise of who He is, and in that way put in some effort in my relationship with Him.

When something great happens, like our favorite sports team wins an important game, we cheer and then we post on Facebook or Twitter to share with everyone our joy in our team’s victory. That type of sharing and praising of our team completes our joy in the victory.

In the same way, my praising of God should complete my joy in my relationship with Him, shouldn’t it? If I take the time to post about my favorite sports team, why wouldn’t I take the time to praise God in prayer?

So this week I’m hoping to work on learning how to really praise God. I am thinking of going through a book on the names of God and also going through the Psalms (my favorite book of the Bible).

Also, since I’m posting about prayer today, I want to pray for you! I created a form for you to fill out your prayer requests to protect your privacy. Please let me know how I can pray for you!