Praise the Lord/Psalm 98:1-3

"Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God."

Too often we define prayer as as asking God for stuff. While God does encourage us to make our requests known to Him, we must remember that that is only one aspect of prayer. Prayer is talking to God, and if our prayer life is always about us then we're missing the point. When we talk to God, when we worship Him, we ought not to use it as another opportunity to focus on us and what we're doing. We ought to use our prayer time to focus on God and what He has done and what He is continuing to do. Instead of singing about how God makes us feel, let's just sing about the wonderful things He has done. Let's thank Him for salvation and for provision. Let's thank Him for His faithfulness and His steadfast love. Let's remind the world that our God has brought salvation from the darkness that has blinded our world!

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