Praise Him!
Praise the Lord! For it is a good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful (Psalm 147:1).
Praise is such a beautiful thing. If you are looking for something good and pleasant to spend your time on, try praise! Psalm 147:1 tells us that it is a good and pleasant thing to sing praises to our God, and that praise is beautiful. Praise is a beautiful way of thanking and appreciating God for His goodness and love to us. Praise is using beautiful and delightful words and songs to make known the greatness, majesty and power of God. It is in the place of praise that we discover and experience the beauty of God. As we praise God, we realize that our God is indeed beautiful for all situations (Psalm 48:1-2). There is no situation, no matter how hopeless, bad, messy or difficult that God can’t bring something beautiful from. God gives beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3). God can repair and redeem the worst of the worst, whether it is a person or problem.
God wants to fill our mouth with praise (Psalm 71:8). God wants to grant us understanding that it is only the living that can praise God. Dead bodies are of no good when it comes to praise. You can’t sing, clap or dance to God when you are in the grave (Psalm 6:5, Isaiah 38:19). Now is the time! Now that we are living and breathing is the time to give God praise. Now is the time to let everything around you and in you know that only God is worthy of all honour and adoration. May our daily motto be: Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord! (Pslam 150:1).
Praise is giving God the center stage in our lives, so all the attention, all the glory goes to God. On the opposite side of praise is glory sharing, which God frowns at. God wants us to give Him all the glory, not ascribe to our looks, position, abilities, qualifications, connections or family name the glory due to God (Psalm 115:1, Isaiah 42:8).
If we want our homes to be God’s home, if we want God to sit tight at our Church gatherings, if we want our lives to be God’s favourite place for spending time, then we have to be a people of praise. God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). To live a life of praise, to offer praises God delights in, we need to work on and change our vocabulary. Instead of abusive, harmful, hurtful and discouraging words coming out of our mouths, our mouths should be filled with words of praise (James 3:8-10). Words of praise that can lift us up when we are feeling low (Psalm 42:11).Words of praise that ‘Walls of Jericho’ (Joshua 6:1-20) respond to; words of praise that can bring down walls of delay, stagnation, and satanic barriers to progress.
The more we praise God, the more God amazes us with His awesome acts of power. Notable and outstanding miracles are birthed during times of praise (Acts 16:25-26, 2 Chronicles 20:22). Praise is too powerful for us to neglect or treat lightly. No matter what we are facing, no matter what we have or don’t have, may we be able to bless the Lord at all times. It is in the place of praise, not in the place of grumbling and complaining that God’s hand goes to work to do beautiful things in our lives.
PRAYER
O Lord, open my eyes afresh to Your glory, greatness and majesty. Let me see and understand how great you so my lips burst forth into glorious songs of praise and my knees bow down to You in humble adoration. As long as I have breathe, let praise never cease from my lips. As I praise You Lord, surround me with many victories, blessings and testimonies.
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Praise God!