To pray or praise....that is the question

Do you feel that when you pray, you run down a list of requests, as if to remind God of what you need? Do you get to that one really big request and begin dwelling on it each and every time you come to the throne?

I want to challenge you to think about prayer in a different manner....it might seem a bit radical and maybe even sacrilegious, but follow me for a minute...

What if we stopped praying for what we need and started praising God as if we already had it? When we read the scriptures, we uncover miracle after miracle and often times, God tells His people exactly what miracle is going to happen. For example, God told the Israelites they would be delivered from Egypt, they would take the promise land and the city of Jericho would be given to them.

When God told His people what to expect,  He spoke as if it was already done. "I have delivered," "You will take captive," "I will give you."  Those statements read as if God has already decided the victory is yours. There is no question in His mind....He is going to make it happen.

So if we believe that God is capable to transform our circumstances and to work a miracle, why do we continue to beat the door down with our request. Of course we are all thinking of that scripture that tells us to pray without ceasing. Well, we can still be in prayer, not in asking. 

I want to offer this shift in your prayer life.... instead of request after request, tell God what's on your heart and what you need. Then leave it there. Don't keep beating it into the altar, but begin praising God for what He is going to do in that situation.

True faith doesn't just celebrate after the results are delivered, true faith confidently celebrates before the miracle happens as if it has already happened because you know that you know that God is going to deliver on His promises.

After you pray through -- praise through. Prayer and praise are both expressions of faith, but praise is a higher dimension of faith. Prayer is asking God to do something- future tense. Praise is believing that God has already done it - past tense.