“O Lord our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” From ‘The Book of Common Prayer and The Scottish Liturgy

I am not part of the Episcopal Church in England, but I did notice in the prayers presented in the book noted above often begin with addressing God in wonderful ways which is something all of us need to do in our prayer lives.

You and I have the privilege and honor of speaking to the God of the Universe who holds all worlds in His hand and Who makes His will done with a thought. He is beyond us and as we pray to Him you and I should remember that.

We need to properly say who God is in our prayers so that we properly put ourselves under Him as we pray. We never want to place ourselves above God in our prayers and treat Him like a vending machine or Santa Claus. God need not check off some list for us and get a gold star for being a good God. We humbly and weakly come to Him.

Even as I say that, we do not need to be flowery and attempt to be impressive to ourselves or others as we pray for that is a huge temptation as we think about this.

Proverbs 10:19 (NIV1984), “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”

Matthew 6:7 (NIV1984), “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

We need to properly say who God is in our prayers to properly acknowledge Him and not to make ourselves feel or appear more spiritual. At the beginning of the prayer above, I love that the prayer calls Him ‘Lord,’ ‘Heavenly Father,’ ‘Almighty,’ ‘Everlasting,’ and shares that we know He is in charge of our day. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is properly addressing our God who is far beyond anything we can think or imagine. We should do this not to sound better, but to address God properly. It is a humble heart issue.

God our Father Who Provides for all my needs…

Abba Father Who loves me unconditionally…

In the Name of Jesus my Savior, I come to you Almighty God Who sent Your Son…

Powerful God Who created all things and holds my life in His hand…

May we properly come to our God as we pray and rightly name who He is that our prayers would be full of humbleness. This is a place to start as we make sure humbleness is thread throughout our relationship with God… humbleness certainly must be part of prayer.

TMB