PRAISE HIM
AHEAD
Sometimes when
I wake up in the night, I find myself praising God and telling Him I love Him. Many
Christians no longer go to a church building to praise and worship God. But
praise and worship still need to be a part of our lives. Praise and worship are
an important part of our interaction with the Lord God. To praise Him doesn’t
change Him, but it changes us.
When Paul and
Silas were thrown in prison, they prayed and sang praises to God. And what
happened?
“At midnight
Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the
prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's
bands were loosed” (Acts 16:25-26)
Paul and Silas
were free.
David was
being chased and pursued by Saul, who wanted to kill him. When David was alone,
he praised God. And God rescued him and gave him insight on how to get away
from Saul. “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I
be saved from mine enemies” (Ps. 18:3).
There are many
verses about praise, but these two show us that praise opens prison doors.
Praise can free us. David shows us that praise can save us from our enemies.
So even if we
don’t go to an actual church building, and even if our Christian fellowship is
only online or only a small group of people or even if we are by ourselves, we
still need to take time to praise and worship God. We praise and worship Him
for who He is and how thankful we are for Him being in our lives.
Even in awful
circumstances: hurricanes, fires, jail, or persecution, we still need to praise
and worship God. It’s probably our one and only true escape from our own
self-destruction.
David said:
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope
thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance” (Psalm
42:5). David was a smart man.
There’s a
phrase we hear these day: “Pay it ahead.” But David knew that “Praise it ahead”
was even better. He said: “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will
magnify him with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:30).
Praising God
ahead is a way to show our honor toward God and our believing that He is the
Most High God, above all and everything we see around us. He is the true
miracle-worker, the true deliverer, our true love who will never betray us or
try to cause us harm. We worship Him because He lifts us up when we don’t even
ask; He inspires us to take another way around, so we don’t end up in the
middle of a car crash; He sends the perfect helper to us when we need them the
most; He brings peace in the storm and rain in the dry places. He crushes our enemies
and showers us with delight when we least expect it. He is the creator of all
things and the one who fixes things that go wrong. And He is paying attention
to us always.
Though the world may seem to want to take us
down, God has put a strength in us that we sometimes don’t think we have, but
God knows us inside and out and knows He has inserted His very own strength
into us through His son Jesus. We have more stamina and strength than we know,
and sometimes we get tested beyond what we think we can bare. But God knows us
better than we know ourselves. And as He tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
“There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able
to bear it.”
He is the
absolute most important one in our lives, and we only benefit by telling Him
that more often!
Let’s be more
like David, a man after God’s own heart:
1 I will bless the Lord at all times:
his praise shall continually be in my
mouth.
2 My
soul shall make her boast in the Lord:
the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O
magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
Two great
places to get more ideas of things to praise God for: Job 38-41 and the Psalms.
Love, Carolyn
JO
No comments:
Post a Comment