“What can I be in prayer about for you today?,” a faith-filled friend texted.

I responded, “I think instead of praying with requests today, my focus, and you can join me if you want, is praising him today. For who he is, how he does what he says he will do, and how he loves us abundantly.”

God certainly wants to hear our needs (even though he knows them better than we do). We often take needs and requests to him with pure hearts, yet we can also open ourselves up to turning our focus from God and our reliance on and trust in him toward a self-serving focus, an attempt to get what we want. Prayer should minimize our pride instead of build it. The purer the prayer, the more humbling it is.

Try a day of praise soon, or a half day or an hour or five minutes. The more you know God, the more you trust him, the more you humbly live with and for him, the more praise can wash through you and your prayers.