It was Sunday morning in the mountain country of central Europe, and the church bells were ringing. A man walking a mountain path came upon a shepherd lad with his father's flock of sheep. The boy was kneeling, and, looking up, was reciting the alphabet.

The man asked, "What are you doing?" and the boy answered, "I am praying." Somewhat sternly, the man said, "Praying? What kind of praying is this? Just saying letters, no words at all?" The lad replied: "I've never learned any prayers, sir. But it's Sunday morning and the bells are ringing in the valley, and I thought I wanted to pray, and I thought maybe - well, maybe - if I just said all of the letters, God might hear them and put them together for me, and spell out what I ought to say."

This, my dear friend, is true worship - worship in its essence, worship at its purest and best: simply to place ourselves before God and turn it all over to him. This is the ultimate devotion, the first act of worship and the final one -here it begins and here it ends. Whatever else we may do - all our praying, all our preaching, all our singing - nothing ever surpasses this: simply to turn it all over to him and say, "Here it is, Lord; take it, and make it come together as it should; take it, and spell it out for me, if you please."

When we have done this, we will have prayed something pretty close to the perfect prayer.