When my children were small and we would pray with them at night, we took the acronym ACTS for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication and turned it into the more child friendly I love you, I’m sorry, thank you, and please. My boys always got stuck on the I love you part.

It was difficult to explain that I love you is different than thank you. I love you is telling God what you love about Him, loving Him for who He is, and thank you is about what He does. I struggle with that sometimes myself. I love you prayers are the praise prayers, the ones we use to adore God and bless Him for His character, His attributes, and His nature.

Like my children, I found gratitude easier to define, so I would skim praise and go straight to gratitude, but God desires our praise and the Bible tells us it is both a gift and a sacrifice, “…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name” (Heb. 13:15).

Psalm 145 is the model praise prayer in the Bible. Verses 1-2 say,” I will exalt You, my God, O King, and (with gratitude and submissive wonder) I will bless Your name forever and ever.  Every day I will bless You and lovingly praise You; Yes, (with awe-inspired reverence) I will praise Your name forever and ever.”

This is just the beginning of David’s very personal praise to God offered with tender-hearted sincerity to the God he adored. It’s actually an alphabetical poem designed to help with memory—when I learned this it gave me an idea.

I wanted to praise God and do it well so, with Psalm 145 as a model, I set out to praise my way through the alphabet, regularly. I usually do this while I am walking my dog in the early morning. As soon as I get home, I write down the list on my computer. In times of trial or when I find myself struggling, I have these praise lists to help me keep my perspective.

They remind me of circumstances where God was very present; they give me words to encourage others in need; they redirect my thinking to the good things of God in the hardness of life, and they give me a gift to give back to the One who created all things and has given so much for me.

Here is an example of just one of the many lists:

1. Adored, worthy of our adoration
2. Believable, You cannot lie and no promise You’ve ever made has gone unfulfilled
3. Caring (I pray those suffering from hurricane Florence will know and remember this)
4. Desires a relationship with us
5. Eager for those who don’t know You
6. Faithful, even when we are faithless!
7. Good
8. Honest – You are the only one who truly sees us for who and how we are. If we ask, You will honestly show us the depth of our sin. The Bible is clear about this! (Romans 3:23 says ALL have sinned). You won’t leave us there; You will show us where hope is.
9. Intimate
10. Joy-giver
11. Kind (so easy to forget this)
12. Long suffering—patient with us
13. Show up in Moments, not just big things. Almost harder to seek You in the moments of everyday life
14. Noble
15. Omnipresent (watching over those who aren’t watching for You)
16. Pursuer
17. Not a Quitter, You don’t give up on us
18. Restorer of broken things
19. Shelter
20. Truth Teller
21. Uniform in the way You treat us—we did not get what our sins deserved no matter how bad the sin seems to us (we grade them out, You do not). As forgiven sinners, You treat all of us as if we were Your only child.
22. Vital – the God-life only happens when we make You the most important, most vital part
23. With us, presence is the gift
24. Go the eXtra mile
25. Call us Your own
26. Zealous for us

I end each one with the date because as I look back they remind me that I am getting to know God better every day. Time, maturity, and experience are teaching me new things that are growing my faith and transforming my thoughts. This exercise makes it possible for me to say it is well with my praise!