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PSALM 73

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28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

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PSALM 34

?I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Of all the privileges of being a Christian, the ones of bringing our prayers and praises to God, are on the top rung of the ladder.

Before we came to faith, we were alienated from God, we were unable to reach him, let alone talk with him, but now because of the sacrificial death of Jesus, we are able to approach God and call him our father. Hebrews 10:19-22

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Prayer is not just talking to God and bringing our requests, it is part of it, we are not to come with a big shopping list. God is to be praised first, why because he deserves it, before we ask for anything from him, surely it is right to thank and praise him for all he is and how much he has given us.

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Prayer changes things, but so does praise, why? Because it takes our focus off ourselves and places it on God.

Jesus outlined how we should pray in Matthew 6, Paul prayed for each of the churches he founded in passages such as Philippians 1:9-11?and Ephesians 1:15-23. In Philippians 4:6-7, we are urged to bring our requests to God, in Psalm 62, we are told to empty our hearts in Prayer and in ! thess 5, we are told to pray without ceasing.

Prayer is a wonderful privilege, so why is the prayer meeting, the worst attended meeting at virtually every church?

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God answers the prison cell? prayer in Acts 12 and 16, he sends revival through prayer?2 Chronicles 7.

Praise to God is best illustrated in the book of Psalms, there are so many psalms that tell us, what to praise? ?and how to praise God.

We are to praise him for the following reasons:

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For who he is?

For what he?has done for us

For what he has given us

For salvation and all that entails

Prayer and Praise are linked, one place we say them working in conjunction with each other, is in Acts 16:

祷告与赞美是相互关联的，《使徒行传》16 章就是一处体现它们

25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises?unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

Prayer and Praise have dynamic power, both of them working together, not one in isolation, we praise God for who he is and what he has done for us and then we know that when we pray we can come in a bold manner knowing that he will answer us, according to his will.

God is worthy to be PRAISED.

GOD is pleased to hear both our prayers and our praises.

GOD loves to hear our PRAYERS

In the summer, I was going round the ruins of Huntingdon castle, this was the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from 1650-60 and a godly man, there was a stone at the castle, which had these words on it.

HE NEVER LEFT FOR BATTLE EXCEPT THROUGH THE HARBOUR OF PRAYER

We should never go into daily battle, without prayer. In Ephesians 6, we have the Christian's armour, one is usually overlooked and that is prayer. We need to have our armour on, but if we do not pray, it's worthless. Samson shook himself, he said I will go out as before. How often do we do that?

Every day before we go out let's pray.

Let's always take advantage of these two awesome privileges, let's pray without ceasing and may God's praise be continually in our mouths.

Murray Mcheyne said this on prayer

A man is what he is on his knees - nothing more, nothing less

Operation world Page 301

Are you a man/woman of prayer and praise?

These two things should define a person, when Ananias said in Acts 9, how will I recognise Paul, it was told him behold he prayeth.

Does that describe you?

Psalm 34 starts with the phrase I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise is continually in my mouth.

Are you defined by your attitude of praise?

Is your mouth filled with praise?

Do you pray without ceasing?

May we always be a prayerful and praising people.

For his glory alone

God bless you

KK