When we do this, joy will well up inside us and we shall discover another
meaning of the word prayer. To pray is to worship.
Jesus said of worship:
'God
is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.'(
John 4:24)
In other words, real worship is born out of a thankful
heart for when a person really worship, he or she uses their emotions,
their mind and their will to praise and adore God for sin and the
determination to live a more Christ like life so often go together.
We see this happening in the Book of Revelation.
In chapter 5 we are introduced to Jesus who appears in the form of a Lamb
who had once been killed. Thousands of people who had been saved by his
shed blood gathered round him and worshipped by singing a new song:
'"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and strength and honor and glory
and praise.'
Then I heard ever creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and
on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and
glory and power, for ever and ever!"
(Revelation 5:12-14)
Every time we sin, gaze
at Christ's Cross, recognize that he hung there for me, and hear him say:'
Father, forgive'; 'Father set her free', 'Father, set him free', we can
sing a song of worship like that. It will come from the warmth we feel
towards this God whose nature it is to set us free. It will lead us into
the kind of prayer which is described in the line of a hymn some
English Christians love to sing: ' Lord to sing: 'Lost in wonder, love
and praise.'