November 3, 2010
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Entering God’s PresenceEven the disciples of Jesus didn’t really know how to pray or enter God’s presence, so they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus modeled a prayer for them and it’s beginning is crucial: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2). In other words, “Our Father in heaven, your name is holy and wonderful!” Basically Jesus teaches them that to effectively pray we need to start our prayers we need to start with praise for who God is…
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV) – Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
Hebrews 13:15 (NKJV) – Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Both of these verses allude to the power of praise allowing us to enter into the presence of God. In the Old Testament they had the tabernacle that was basically a large tent with gates that represented God’s sanctuary, or where God dwelled. The people had to bring an offering in order to enter in. After they sacrificed the offering they could enter and eat the offering in the presence of God, in fellowship with Him. In the New Testament the author of Hebrews says that our sacrifice is no longer animal or grain offerings but praise to God. So when we sing out, clap, dance, or even shout, we are bringing a sacrifice of praise to God. This is especially powerful when we choose to praise in these ways despite not feeling a desire to. That is what makes it a sacrifice. God doesn’t require these things for us to be with Him (it is truly by grace), but rather our praise instead awakens ourselves to who God is (Psalm 57:8) and all the troubles/worries of the world around us begin to fade as we focus on Him (Philippians 4:6-7).
Praise and thanksgiving help us remember God and get our focus back upon His goodness and His love. As this happens our attitude soon turns from praise/thanks into worship. We begin to behold the glory of God and so we bow down to Him, sing anthems of worship, and sometimes just remain still before Him. This is when prayer becomes easy because we are right in His presence. No longer are we just monotonously repeating our needs, but we are right in front of a great, awesome, and loving Father who we know hears our prayers and is able to act. Our faith explodes in His presence. Give Him praise and thanks for He is good!
God bless!
