Dr. Ray Pritchard Christian Blog and Commentary

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Alphabet Praise

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Updated Aug 25, 2007

This week at Cannon Beach our worship leader was Mark Rice, pastor of a church in Kingman, Arizona. With the assistance of his son Reggie (a pastor in Sedona, Arizona) on the guitar and with the gifted Jan Klerekoper on the piano, we have had wonderful times of worship. One day Mark taught us to do Alphabet Praise. He said he learned it from a pastor friend who advised him to use it as a way of building your faith when you are going through a hard time.

It works like this. For each letter of the alphabet, you come up with a word that describes God. It could be a name for God or simply a phrase that describes some part of God’s character. One morning we went through half the alphabet with people calling out words from the audience. We finished the alphabet several days later. To start Alphabet Praise, you simply say,

O God, you are . . .

A – awesome, almighty, able, Abba, all-powerful, advocate, my all in all, author and finisher, alpha and omega, Ancient of Days, the Amen
B — branch, bread from heaven, big, bright
C — compassionate, cornerstone, Creator, Comforter, Christ, Captain of our salvation, close to me
D – deliverer, Dayspring, the door to heaven
E — excellent, everywhere, eternal
F — father, faithful, friend, forgiver, my fortress, Christ the fulness of God, Fountain of Living Water, Firstborn of All Creation
G — good, great, generous, gracious, glorious
H – holy, my help, heavenly, hiding place, high priest, healer, Holy Spirit
I — I AM, Immanuel, infinite, invisible, immortal, indwelling
J — just, judge, justifier, jealous, source of my joy
K — king, kind, keeper of Israel
L — love, life, light, Lord, Lamb, Living Stone, Lily of the Valley
M — merciful, maker, Most High, Messiah, Morningstar, Mediator, Man of Sorrows
N — near, never far away, never-failing God,
O — overwhelming, omnipotent, only begotten Son
P — Prince of Peace, provider, perfect, pearl of great price, the ultimate promisekeeper
Q — quick to hear our prayers, the one who quietens my heart
R — radiant, Redeemer, righteous, ruler, restores my soul, rewarder, rock, refuge, Resurrection and the Life
S – sovereign, Savior, Sanctifier, Son, strong  tower, shepherd, shield, silent
T — true, trustworthy, the teacher
U — unchanging, unequaled, ultimate
V — vast, victorious, the vine
W — wise, way, wonderful, Word of God, water of life
X — excellent, have true x-ray vision of every heart
Y – Yahweh, yearns for us
Z — zealous, the A to Z of all creation

This is the sort of devotional exercise that you can take in any direction you like. I found it uplifting to hear people calling out phrases that describe God. It actually does work the way Mark said it would. Try some Alphabet Praise today and see if it doesn’t do your soul good.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.