Happy Wednesday Morning all!
It might be Wednesday morning/afternoon/evening for most of you, but for me it's the end of a long Tuesday and the week is fixing to be even longer. I was in a state of near panic and disarray before I read todays scripture. The Lord knows exactly what we need, doesn't He? That's why I need Him and can't understand why others think they don't. I can't live a day without Him!
Psalm 145 really spoke to me.
I have had the opportunity to be in a couple of different churches in my 30 plus years. Some have been different culturally. And one thing I notice in those churches is they are so very vocal with their praise of the Lord. In most of the churches I've been at we are really good at casting our cares upon the Lord, but when it comes to praises, we lack. I'm not talking thanking, we can do thanking really good too, I'm talking praising. Telling the Lord God about how wonderful He is, as opposed to gratitude for what He has done. Both are vital and important to our growth and walk with the Lord, but both are very different from each other. One gives value to the deeds the person has done and the other gives value to the person. Our God is great aside from the deeds He does, that is why He deserves our praise for who He is.
I have a worrier mentality. I worry or panic about a lot of things. I don't like it. But it's a bad habit and we all know how difficult bad habits are to stop. The Lord has provided a discipline for me to combat my anxiety. He has given me the pleasure of praising Him. I cannot tell you how many times I've been worrying about something and the Lord has prompted me to read a psalm out loud, or sing praise to Him and when I take my focus off of me and my abilities, the anxiety leaves. And I think that's the key, when we praise Him, we are focusing on His abilities, His strengths, His faithfulness, His power, not ours. We are so finite, so weak, yes, if we are in control, we should worry! But we aren't, so we do not need to. When you think about it, worrying, in the light and knowledge of our God, is truly ridiculous.
Take a look at the psalmist here, as he focuses on God:
Notice the verbs here in verses four and following, commend, tell, speak, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, sing. There is only one verb, meditate, that is personal. All the rest are very community oriented. We are not to keep our praise of our Lord to ourselves! At least not very much of it. We need to hear our brothers and sisters praising God. Why? Because it's catchy! We need to be reminded of who we serve, we need to hear how God is being revealed to someone else so that He can be revealed to us in that way as well.1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
5 They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.[d]
6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
7 They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
We can learn so much about our God through praise. We can be changed so much through praise. Praise is just as important as request and thanksgiving. We need all of them. I know for me, there is such a refreshing of soul when I praise. It changes me for better.
My prayer for all of us is that we remember to praise in the good and especially in the bad, because it is like medicine We need it just as much as we need Him.
Blessings to you!
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Kings 1-2, John 18:19-40
4 comments:
I loved that Psalm, too. I think I sensed some of the same things you talk about, though I didn't think much about how to articulate it! I read it through twice though, because it just felt so good!!
I think you touched on something that's been bothering me lately when you said, "We need to hear our brothers and sisters praising God. Why? Because it's catchy! We need to be reminded of who we serve, we need to hear how God is being revealed to someone else so that He can be revealed to us in that way as well."
It concerns me that when I'm together with Christian friends, it feels AWKWARD to talk about God, to openly thank Him for something, or to excitedly describe how we felt the touch of the Holy Spirit in our walk the past week, etc. Why does that not come more naturally??!
Love this post Kathryn. Praising God is definitely something I do not do enough of in my own prayer time. Great reminder.
Great post. I actually never considered the fact that praise and thanks were so different because they seem to go hand in hand. You are so right to point out that God deserves our praise regardless of what He has or has not done.
Tammi-I know that feeling too. I LOVE that I work in a Christian school and over the last 2 years, I have been able to grow close to some of the other teachers and they have helped me to be more open and talk about thanking God out loud. One teacher in particular has been a real blessing to me in this way. I think the best way to overcome something difficult is to practice doing it...at least that's what I tell my Grade one friends!
Thanks for the reminder about praising God just for who He is and not just thanking Him for what He has done! I forwarded this post to a couple of friends of mine who struggle with worrying, in hopes that they will find your tip helpful.
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