A few years back I was given a prayer card entitled "31 Ways to Praise". It's a beautiful tool put out by Pray! Magazine. You can get your own prayer cards through the website including this package that includes the card I have. I am in desperate need of refocusing my prayer life right now, and am using this tool, and this blog, to help me for the next 31 (or so) days.
I love this prayer card. God deserves our praise, every day, because He is worthy. We may feel distraught while we go through a trial, upset at the unfair circumstances of our lives, distracted by our everyday tasks, or ecstatic at all the blessings we have. Yet He deserves our praise, just for who He is. This card includes a small prayer for each day of a month (yes, I'm starting in the middle of a month but I know I need to start it now), and a Bible reference for the attribute of God listed.
I've been having a hard time the past week or so. Nigel's unemployment checks abruptly stopped. My income is short, as it is summer and my piano students are on vacation for much of it. I am going through the nesting phase of pregnancy, yet we don't know if we will even be able to stay in our apartment past July. I am wondering about my ability to be a parent, and making decisions about the labor/delivery, vaccinations, and all kinds of other things to prepare for our little girl. Not to mention the raging hormones that greatly affect me periodically. Last week, I gave in to almost despair, as I worried and fretted and cried out to God over it all. It was a rough week.
Sunday morning, one of our worship songs at church was "Blessed Be Your Name." It is such a profound song. I found myself humbled, praising God and blessing His name even though I feel now like I am on a road of difficulty. The song is about blessing God despite our feelings and circumstances. I came out of the service renewed, refreshed, and knowing that praising God needed to be at the forefront of my mind. I often need that reminder. Don't we all?
Day 1: God the Creator. "Creator God, I praise You because 'You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship You' " (Nehemiah 9:6).
God created me, a miracle, and my birth mother allowed me to be born and gave me up for adoption to an amazing family in South Dakota. He created Nigel, a miracle, and he grew up in a large family in Pakistan. God brought us together in California in 2006, and through another miracle has given us a baby, who He also created. I am in awe. I cannot fathom this life growing inside of me and all her intricacies. I cannot wait to meet her and see who God has created her to be.
None of us were accidents, none of us were unplanned, for God knew us before we were born, in our mother's wombs.
"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13)
Amazing. Blessed be Your name Father, for You are Creator of all things, including me.
