For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. – Psalm 66:17 NLT

Have you ever called out to God in prayer and felt simply desperate for His help, but sadly even after the prayers you just didn’t feel better? Maybe the prayer was eventually answered and everything turned out for the best, but the peace still wasn’t there while you were waiting. Without a doubt He heard your call to Him, but in my experience the peace comes through praise. If you happened to leave this part out of your cries to Him, it could explain why the peace didn’t come. He wants to hear from us, He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives, He wants to come to our aid when we call, we can be sure of that. But when we leave out the praise for who He is and what He has done and what He will do, our prayers are missing a vital component.

There is so much power in praising God and we may never have thought about before, so let’s take a look at it now. When we praise God, we are recalling who He is to our own minds. We are in essence reminding ourselves of how mighty and powerful He is. We are bringing up times we may have filed away in the back of our brains of when He performed great miracles in our lives or in the lives of others. Praising God is not only for Him, it’s for us. It’s bringing our current, in the moment thoughts to what He is capable of and in essence making what we’re going through small in comparison.

Praising God also strengthens us. We are encouraged to praise God because He absolutely deserves it, but it’s also for our benefit as well. When we remind ourselves who we belong to, who we serve, and who holds us in His hand, we can rest our minds and trust. Even though we may know deep down in our hearts who God is, we might need that reminder to ourselves every once in a while.

So today, when you draw near to God to present your requests and to talk to Him in order to deepen your relationship, don’t forget the praise for Him and what He has done in your life. Remind yourself of who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.