Prior To Prayer

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” (Ps 100:4-5 AV)

 

When we pray, we are entering the gates of heaven.  Every time we seek the face of God, we enter His gates.  When we go to the throne of grace for help in a time of need, we enter His courts.  Courts are for several things.  Courts are for intercession when an offender needs forgiveness.  Courts are also for those who are seeking regress or relief.  Separate and apart from our needs, God is good, He is merciful, and He is faithful.  Regardless of how life is at the moment, God never changes and He is always better to us than we deserve.  Here is the rub.  When we do go to prayer, how do we approach the whole practice of it?  What words do we use?  What is our heart’s attitude?  When we seek the intervention of God, do we come with a heart of gratitude and praise even before we lay down our needs?  What struck me this morning is the attitude of heart required before we lay our needs at His feet.  This lines up with the LORD’s prayer.  Before we are to ask for anything, we are to hollow the name of God.  We are to submit to His will.  That is the starting point. Not the ending.

One of the most important behaviors a parent can teach his or her child is to say please and thank you.  To do anything less is to demand and to expect.  Before they ask for anything, they were to preface the request with a ‘please’.  Not after the request was made, but before.  To place the ‘please’ after the request meant it was a polite instruction.  “May I please have a second piece of cake”  sounds different from “May I have a second piece of cake, please.”  Thank yous are also important.  “Thank you” without including what one is thankful for or including the name or title of the benefactor can also seem trite.  “thank you, Mrs. Jones for letting me come over and play with Timmy” is much better than “thanks”.  A heart of gratitude and grace goes a long way in receiving that for which we seek.  In fact, it would be rather rude for a child to go to a parent or guardian and say something like, “Gimme another cookie.”  When we raised our sons we tried to raise them with a heart that was grateful no matter the situation of life.  This is not always possible.  Sometimes, life is far more than we can bear.  We know it is the will of God, but the load is simply too heavy to bear.

This does not alleviate us from the proper protocol to enter the throne of God.  It still requires we be thankful and praise Him for all He has and is doing.  We cannot go to the LORD and complain because we cannot appreciate the circumstances of life.  Now, you might argue that some of David’s psalms are filled with complaints.  I would agree.  But there are enough psalms that more than make up for the few that are nothing but complaints.  David knew how to be thankful and praise God for all that He had done.  If he did complain, it was over people or situations that made his calling extra difficult.  David was a man after God’s own heart.  He was truly a man that appreciated who God was and all the grace that was bestowed upon him.  When he sought the face of God he did so with the proper heart attitude.  This is the major reason the Holy Spirit was able to use him to pen so many psalms.  A heart of gratitude and praise is the preface of any and all requests.  If we cannot start there, we are wasting our time and God’s.  Make a list.  If it has to be on paper because your mind cannot remember, then do so.  But make a list.   Before you ask for a single thing, be sure you can thank Him for more things than you are asking.  It is that heart that gains the ear of God.