But this morning I want to give a second reason why we should pray. We should pray, because prayer brings glory to God.
“24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples. 25 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. 27 Splendour and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling-place. 28 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, 29 ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness.” 1 Chronicles 16:24-29, NIV.

Think of all the things mentioned in these verses. “Declare his glory…” “Ascribe to the Lord…” is mentioned three times. “Worship the Lord…”

Then look at what it says. The Lord is Great. Spendour and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

The Lord is worthy of receiving glory.

Some struggle with this. Their struggle goes like this. God must have a big ego if he wants everyone to tell him how good he is.

But we miss the point. The Psalmist said the “glory due his name…” He deserves it. We miss the mark, we sin, if we do not give him the glory due him.

When we do not give God the glory, we then, by omission, give the glory to someone else, either directly or by inference.

In writing, we call this plagiarism. Plagiarism is copying someone else’s writings without giving them credit and passing them off as your own. Some students do this with term papers. It is cheating and below the dignity of the Christian. It’s possible to do that in preaching. I try to avoid it, though I have no original thoughts.

It is irritating to mention an idea to your boss and find out he got a thousand dollar bonus because he passed it up the chain of command as his own idea. You would say, “There is something wrong with that picture.” Why? Because you are due credit for what you come up with.

Does God deserve credit for making this universe and all that is in it? We do not give him the glory due his name when we do not give him credit.

We need to understand the Biblical idea behind pride. Pride is telling a lie about yourself. Romans 12 says that we are to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. This means that if we do something well, we can take credit for it. But we must be careful not to put too much weight on our accomplishments nor demean them. But you cannot speak too highly of God. It is impossible to exaggerate what he has done. God is not someone with an ego. But he is someone who wants his due.

So why doesn’t God get credit for all he does? There may be many reasons, but the one that relates to the need for prayer is this: God does not get credit for what he does because we do not recognize that He is the one doing it.

Scientist are looking for the existence of a force that produces mass. If they find it, they believe that they will be able to explain how the sun, moon, and stars came into existence at the Big Bang. I would encourage them to read their Bible on this, but that is not my point. Reuters online said, “Scientists at the centre hope the process will produce clear signs of the boson, dubbed the "God particle" by some, to the displeasure of Higgs, an atheist.” The last thing that Higgs would want to do would be to credit God for making the universe!

Why do newscastors attribute the weather to “Mother Nature”? I will tell you that they chose those words specifically so as not to offend atheists. So newscasts refer to “Mother Nature” for the bad weather and credit the weatherman for the good weather. Why not give credit to God for an incredible universe? When he is thrown out of the picture, he does not receive the glory due his name. We quickly forget our wonderful God who made all that is and will be.

Prayer is talking to God. When we ask Him to help us and we receive help, we recognize the source. When we pray for strength and we get strength, we recognize the source. God might have provided for it anyway, we will never know. But the difference is that because we prayed we give credit where credit is due.

It is an amazing journey with God when we see his hand working behind the scenes. I believe that one reason David was called a “man after God’s own heart…” was because he spent so much time praying and thinking about God.

When God gets the credit, when God gets the glory, it causes others to be attracted to him. I tell you stories about how good my Macintosh computer is and some of you become more interested. I tell you how good a Ping golf club is and you might look up more info for yourself. I tell you how God answered my prayer and you are attracted to my God. And he is glorified when I do so.

So pray. Pray because God commands you to. But pray so that you will not fall into the trap mentioned in Romans 1.

“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:18-21, NIV.

Help us to be thankful to God, to appreciate what he has given, to give him credit for all he does. And prayer, talking to God, recognizing his place in all we do, is an important step for the believer with an humble heart.