How do I write a prayer of praise or thanksgiving?

Prayers of praise or thanksgiving can be expressed in spoken word, song, dance, art, or other expressions that prayerfully thank and praise God for all the good things God has done for us.

These prayers can happen in various parts of the worship service:

• At the beginning of the service with the words of praise or adoration
• Following the assurance of pardon
• During a baptism
• Following the receiving of the Lord's Supper or communion
• After the hearing of God's word preached

Why praise God?

We praise God because it's right and proper and fitting, and in the wisdom of God what's right turns out also to be what causes us to thrive. Praise requires a kind of recognition. You recognize greatness, then you call attention to it, and then you try to magnify it. All this, said C. S. Lewis, is simply "inner health made audible"(C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms [New York: Harvest, 1964], 179). It's healthy to praise God's greatness. It's one of the things we human beings were made to do, and when we do it, our motor starts to hum and our exhaust tone gets throaty and strong.

What is thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is exhalation within the Christian's respiratory pattern. When you have been raised with Jesus Christ, giving thanks is simply a way to exhale. A resurrected Christian breathes in God's goodness and breathes out thanksgiving. Inhale goodness, exhale thanksgiving. That's the Christian's respiratory pattern, and Paul knew all about it. So, in Colossians 3, Paul calls everybody who has been raised with Christ to start breathing the right way. Since you have been raised with Christ, be thankful, sing with gratitude in your hearts, give thanks to God through Christ. Three times in a row Paul urges thanksgiving as a kind of first prayer for those who have been born again.

The idea is that if somebody gives you something, then you give something back. You round out the transaction. Take in something, give out something. Breathe in, breathe out. Receive, give. This is the healthy rhythm of a healthy Christian life.

Where are prayers of praise or thanksgiving in the Bible?

There are many prayers of praise or thanksgiving throughout scripture. Some feature praise for the attributes of God, actions of God, the redemption of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Some of these prayers are prayers of thanksgiving that contain recitation of history, tracing the timeline of God's redemptive acts.

Psalmists had theimpulse to praise what's great or good all the time, and so the psalms ring with praise and with calls to praise. God has delivered the children of Israel. Let's praise our deliverer! God is great, God is good. Let's praise God! Let everybody praise God—even other nations, even mountains and hills and rivers! Let everything praise God! Why? Because it's right and proper and fitting.

• 1 Kings 8:23, 56–68, "There is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath"
• 1 Chronicles 29:10–13, "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel"
• Psalm 8:1–2, "O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
• Psalm 36:5–9, God's steadfast love extends to the heavens
• Psalm 72:18–19, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel"
• Psalm 92, it is good to praise the Lord
• Psalm 150, "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!"
• Ephesians 1:3–18, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"
• Romans 11:33, 36, from God and through God and for God are all things
• Revelation 5:9–13, worthy is the Lamb