I recently read a published devotional by a well known Christian leader who is also someone I know personally. In it he describes how difficult it is sometimes for him to pray. “I must admit that I have found prayer strenuous, boring, and confusing at times.”
Like my friend, all Christians struggle with prayer. For me, that struggle often happens just before I begin: “I’m tired. Do I really need to do this? Maybe just a short prayer this time…”
When I feel this way, I have learned a little secret that you may find helpful too: I “pray the attributes of God.”
Now “praying the attributes of God” sounds very theological and clinical, even sterile. But in practice, it’s simply me reminding myself who this amazing person is that I am communing with by describing what I have come to know about God to himself.
For example, those of us who have ever fallen in love know exactly what I mean. Part of our love for them is describing their amazing attributes to them: their beauty – their eyes, their hair, their smile; their personality – their kindness, their intelligence, their perseverance. (Just thinking about Patti this way makes my heart beat faster!)
So it is with God in prayer. Part of our love for God is describing our understanding of him to him: his holiness (“Lord, there is nothing evil, nothing spoiled, nothing lacking in you. You are utterly desirable.”), his creativity (“Everything you make is beautiful. You are never boring.”), his eternity (“You always have been. You always will be. You have always known I would be. You will always know and love me.”), his love, his justice, his mercy, and on and on and on.
I find that as I communicate these attributes about God to God in my prayer, my love for God becomes overwhelming. He is everything I could ever want. Everything I could ever need. Everything I could ever live for.
What I’ve also discovered is that I can never exhaust God’s attributes in one prayer. There is so much to tell him about!
And when we have a lot to talk about with God, we don’t have to worry about prayer.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
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2 thoughts on “On Praying the Attributes of God”
Herb, this is so very true! I believe it is the key to everything, and certainly is the foundation of my own relationship to God. I often begin my morning saying “God, I thank you that you are everything I am not – You are absolutely perfect, wise, kind, loving, creative. I see your beauty in everything that is around me! Blessed are you who created all that is out of your own amazing goodness and power.” And more words to that effect, always different, because God is endlessly good and abounding in every attribute one could imagine, there are simply not enough adjectives to describe him. As I praise God in this way, my own heart is warmed and my focus is redirected off of my sinful self onto the One who is my example in everything .
Hugh, this is such a wonderful comment. Possibly the best I’ve ever read. Thank you for sharing your wonderful devotional practice with us. I’m so glad someone else sees the importance of telling God in detail how wonderful he is. So refreshing this Easter season to see your love for the Lord. He is risen!