Praise of Divine Attributes

తెలుగు

Author, Father M. Devadas

4. PRAISING GOD FOR HIS DIVINE ATTRIBUTES

(PRAISES MENTIONED IN PRAYER STEPS)

In us both the divine qualities and evil qualities are mixed up together. It is our duty to have the evil nature eliminated from us through the meditation of God's attributes. Prayer to God is very useful for this purpose.

1. THE CELESTIAL BEING : God is the God Himself. God is the wonderful One. He is the First One, existing even before anything that was created. He is the great, good and eternal God. Though He is without form, He is a Person.

Faith and praise : Oh God as You are the true God You are beyond the every idea of our knowledge. So we extol Your excellent greatness.

You Yourself have formed the idea of Your existence. Hence we adore You.

2. LIFE : Since God is full of life and activity He cannot remain inactive and idle. He cannot stay away from creating man even when He knows that man will fall into sin. He rather may save the sinner but did not stop creating Him. The divine attribute of Life is all pervasive with all His other attributes. Likewise each divine attribute is pervasive with all the remaining divine qualities. All the divine qualities are interrelated. Each divine quality, while in activity, mingles with the other divine qualities emerging as a single divine attributes.

Faith and Praise : O God You being life itself continue to inspire us with life daily, hence we worship You. When the life which was poured in me by You recedes (weakens), You are the only One that strengthens and renews my life for which we magnify You.

You are the sustainer of life in every human-being. When the human being lose the strength of life they will die. In due time, You will resurrect them and will make them alive again. So we praise You for Your great creative power.

You are the Source of life, not only for the physical life, but also for our spiritual life. Whenever I become weak in my spiritual life, only You revive and strengthen me with the gift of renewed life. So we extol Your good deeds.

You have started this good work in me now and here itself to bless me with eternal life in heaven. So we offer our tankful praises. As You are living eternally You granted grace to live with You forever and ever. Accept our worship and praise.

3. LOVE: God is the Love by nature. So He forgives up no matter how many times we sin. He prepared everything we need even before we were created. Bestowing us with all these things we desire vivid (clear) evidence of His love.

Faith and praise : O God we worship You for You are the embodiment of Love.

You could not keep away form creating me because You Yourself is Love.

You created me intending that I could be with You in Your presence for ever. So grateful salutes to You. Just because of Your love towards me You have prepared everything I need even before I was born.

Your exceeding love for me has motived You to become a man like me in every aspect keeping my salvation in Your mind. For this we extol Your great Name. In this context I am exceedingly delighted to read the verse which goes " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...." You have implanted this nature of love in men unto men and in creatures to understand Your love for us explicitly.

You have revealed Your great qualities such as Your love in the Word of God and You are teaching us by You Holy Spirit. So for these gifts that reveal Your love we praise You.

4. JUSTICE : God is Just. He will never act against the nature of the creation. For example, two fives result in ten; He will never make it nine even if we pray earnestly. If He has done so it will be against the order of the nature. He is perfectly just and judging the men in rewarding and punishing them according to His law.

Faith and praise : O God You are the embodiment of justice. So we adore Your great Name. As You are just You are punishing the accused. No matter how much sinful one is if he repents and prays to You, You are just enough to forgive him saying that it is quiet reasonable to save him. For this Your great quality we adore You. As You are the Originator of Justice, You will place everyone according to his needs.

You will grant everyone as much as one needs. So we praise Your name.

You will never commit injustice, so we offer our praises. We notice that often You will keep silent even if You observe wickedness and afflictions in this world. It is right in Your sight since You have given the privilege of freedom to men.

You will not prevent them form doing so. But according to Your justice You have appointed a day of judgement to punish the wicked who have wilfully mis used the freedom. Further, You are giving plenty of time for the man to repent and to come to You. For this reason You are keeping silent, so we praise You. When You observe men in grow in wisdom and to start a new life. For these Your excellent qualities, we worship You and honor You.

5. POWER : God is the power. So He is able to do everything He wishes. Nothing is impossible with Him. One Christian preacher was asked whether God can commit sin. Then the preacher replied that God will never. Then the enquirer started that we call God as the Almighty, when He cannot sin. The preacher then said the sinning is like falling down form holiness, and so dies 11falling down require strength? Will You state that a person is strong when he often falls down?

Faith and praise : O God, You are powerful, and we extol You for Your exceedingly great strength.

Oh Father, we bless Your great Name, because the great heavens and the vast earth are Your creation and are sustained by Your power.

Oh Father there is nothing You cannot do for my sake. Hence, we magnify You. Even if I go astray and enter the Sheol or uttermost parts of the earth You are mighty enough to save me from there. So I adore Your mighty Name. We bless Your glorious Name because You with Your might enable us to do those things that cannot be done with our strength. We adore Your wonderful Name because You are strong enough to provide us everything we need, as well as remove those things that we do not need and those things that harm us. I recognize that You can take me to heaven by Your power, as I have already known that I cannot ascend to heaven on my own accord. Hence, I heartily praise Your esteemed Name.

6. WISDOM : God is an embodiment of knowledge and wisdom. So no one is capable of advising Him and counsel Him. We can recognize the growth in the field of knowledge by looking at the many innovations made by modern men these days. How excellent God's wisdom is which gave human beings such vast knowledge to that great extent. Even if we share all our knowledge with one another we can never understand how excellent God's wisdom is. No two things are alike. No two men are alike. No two animals are alike, No two trees are alike. Unless we thoroughly observe and examine it, we cannot conclude it so. "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor? or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him, and through Him and to Him are all things. To whom be glory for ever and ever" (Romans 11:33-36).

Faith and praise : O God, You are the embodiment of all wisdom and knowledge, we delight in meditating Your excellent Name. Even when I work according to my foolishness, You enlighten me I rejoice in praising Your good Name. When we examine the history of creation You made for us, we observe Your wisdom in the excellent order and structure. The way You created man only after creating all that he needs shows the great order of Your excellent and unsearchable wisdom.

You have not created first things last and last things first. But You have not created everything in its due time. So we rejoice in the goodness of Your wisdom.

You have arranged everything according to its proper placement.

You have kept the things in wilderness which should be kept in the wilderness.

You have kept the things in the sea which should be kept in the sea. The arrangement and order in Your creation shows Your excellent wisdom. So I rejoice in Your deeds of wisdom and knowledge.

7. HOLINESS : Some people have a misconception that God Himself is the root cause of goodness as well as evil. But how can the Holy God commit sin? In case God commits sin or becomes the cause for sin, He will be the greatest sinner amongst sinners. If He is a sinner, how can He be God? Does light become darkness and darkness becomes light?

Faith and Praise : O Father, as You are absolutely Holy, You have created everything holy. So we offer our praises. Though I am a sinner You will make me Holy and after relieving me from this sinful world at last, You will take me to Heaven which is the abode of Holiness. So we offer our praises to Your Holy Name. Our Holy Father, You abhor sin because You are Holy, yet You are merciful towards sinners. Hence we adore You for this Your goodness, After the last judgement, You will change this sinful world into a holy world and make it a part of the Heaven. So we offer our praises to Your Holy Name. After that the remaining people on this world are not aware of sin. As such, the people now in the heaven are sinless for which we adore Your excellent Name.

Oh, Holy One, Oh Holy One, who is, who was and who is to come (Rev. 1:8), in all the places and among all saved people only You are worthy of all honour and praise.

You are the Holy one so You have not created sin, so we offer our Praises.

You were not the creator of either sin or its consequences. Oh Father, You are the source and Sustainer of holiness. So accept our everlasting praises of Your great Name.

8. FREEDOM : God has absolute freedom. So He is not bound to follow the wishes of somebody else. He does not need to depend upon someone. Nobody is superior to Him, so He has no need to obey somebody's orders. While He is doing everything according to His own will, there is no hindrance for completion of His works.

Faith and praise : Our Father, You have given freedom to every creature You created for which I rejoice whole hearted.

You have given me freedom to worship You whole hearted without compulsion, for which I offer my delightful salutations. To our first parents You gave freedom to eat freely every fruit in the garden. Even now we too have this freedom to enjoy everything according to His own will, there is no hindrance for completion of His works.

Faith and praise : Our Father, You have given freedom to every creature You created for which I rejoice whole hearted.

You have given me freedom to worship You whole hearted without compulsion, for which I offer my delightful salutations. To our first parents You gave freedom to eat freely every fruit in the garden. Even now we too have this freedom to enjoy everything You have provided for us in this creation. For this gift of Yours we offer our hearty praises to your Name.

You have provided every spiritual blessing to the believers. We would not say that we are short of this and we are short of that, and You desire that we enjoy every gift without any limitation. For these bounteous gifts we adore your great Name. We extol Your goodness while rejoicing and meditating on Your Word - "For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and You are Christ's and Christ is God's (I Corinthians 3:21-23). So we extol Your good Name.

9. OMNIPRESENCE : God is Omnipresent. There is no place in the Universe where He is not present. So we must be conscious always that whatever and wherever we do anything, it is known to Him, and so this awareness must make us to live thing from Him. If You acknowledge this greatness of His. He will help You in every place. In Acts 2:1-4, it is written that while the disciples were waiting in prayer in the upper room, for the promised Holy Spirit, they heard a sound from heaven and it filled all the house as they themselves were filled with the Holy Spirit, If You accept this, He will fill all your heart also. How good the news is this to You to give great joy!

Faith and Praise : Our Father, we adore You because You are present everywhere in the Universe.

You will stay by my side whether I am in my house, or outside or in travel, or in your Church or at the school or at the workplace. You are with me whether I am in a safe place or in a dangerous place.

Your presence makes me rejoice whether I am in this world or in Heaven. We offer our hearty praise of Your greatness because You are with us whether we are asleep or in careless state, whether we are in darkness or in light. We rejoice at the good thought that You, the Omnipresent God, will be with me in every place I go in the entire universe and throughout all time. You have provided this blessed life for me along with the Holy angels and Your saints in your presence. So with this joyful thought, we heartily bless Your great Name.

10. PRAISES TO THE TRIUNE GOD OR TRINITY : Though God is uniquely only one, He reveled himself to us in the Book of His word as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, So when God is referred He is spoken of as one individual in three persons as well as three individuals in one person. Yet God is only One, and not three. When we say that He revealed Himself as three persons, the human interpretation that there are three gods does not fit in the case of God. In Their working - Father created the Universe and all in it: Son Has borne the sin of the whole Universe and redeemed it; Holy Spirit reveals the truth, gives wisdom and strengthens to make us glorify God. This revelation of the mystery of Triunity we received from Him is beyond our comprehension (understanding) and so we need not meditate about it any further into this mystery. It will be beneficial of we rejoice in our spirit and be content with the revealed explanation of the Truth. This is illustrated by the fact of flame, light and heat together make into one fire. We recognize that even if one of these three is extinguished, the fire goes out. We cannot say that these three are individual things, but say that the fire is only one. In a similar manner, we understand that God is only One, and is revealed in Trinity.

Faith and praise : Oh Father as we meditate on the wonder of your revelation as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and the wonder of one God in three persons and the three individuals in one Person, we rejoice to adore Your wonderful Name. Our Father even as You are Triune, You created us as Triune body, soul and spirit ( 1 Thess 5:23). So we worship You with all our hearts.

11. DONATOR OF DIVINE QUALITIES : It is written that God created man in His own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-28; 5:1). What do His image and likeness mean? His divine qualities are His image and likeness. He created man by putting His qualities in Him Just as a Son inherits the qualities of his father, God gave us His qualities even before we knew Him. In this we notice God's love. He gave also those things which were created for our needs and these His gifts show His love toward us. All of Him and the creation He made are ours through His gift to us and this thought must fill our hearts with love, gratitude and adoration for Him.

Faith and praise : O God, we offer our joyful thanks for the gift of Your good attributes and nature to each of us who believed in Your Name. When any evil that is contrary to Your divine nature enters our it causes grief to You as well as to us. Yet, to avoid Your name being dishonored, and to protect us from pershing by our grief, You have provided a way of cleaning us of our evil through the shed blood of Your Son. For this Your benevolent and wise provision we offer our joyful praises. This gift of Your own goodness to us is the greatest of all Your gifts to us. You have given Your word in the Book to enable us understand all these gifts, and so this Book is a great gift indeed. We offer our wholehearted praises of Your name for all Your gifts. AMEN.