Shout Joyful praises to God

Praise

Praise is mentioned about 596 times in the Bible. I’m just going to use Psalm 66.

Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious!

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power

that your enemies cringe before you.

All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name.”       Selah  Psalm 66:1-4

So we are told to (a) shout with joy, (b) sing the glory of His name, (c) make His praise glorious, (d) sing praise.

David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. 2 Samuel 6:5

They were celebrating getting the ark of God back to the city of David.

So when did we stop giving God the praise He deserves? Isn't He doing wonderful things in our lives, in the lives of our family and friends that we should be celebrating?

Shouldn't we be celebrating His magnificence? His glory? His faithfulness? His forgiveness? His healing? His protection? And the list can go on and on.

In my opinion not only has ‘going to church’ become a habit, a religion; but so has the time of praise. We finally arrive at church after arguing with our flesh or spouse or children….that did not want to get up, it’s the only day they get to sleep…..or we are still thinking on the work we left on our desk Friday….or maybe we are dwelling on some gossip we heard and can’t wait to see if so and so shows up today. You name it, our minds; our desires are elsewhere so we go in and go through the motions. We sing the songs but are we really noticing the words and the meanings? Are we really singing these songs to God? Can you close your eyes and feel His presence and if you hear Him to tell you to lift your arms in worship to Him, will you do it or are you concerned about someone seeing you and ‘gossiping’ about you?

 

I know we are to do all things to glorify God, but when you read about how they praised Him in the Bible; it seems we have lost exuberance.

God has done so much for me that I want to make sure I’m giving Him all the glory every day of my life and when I come together with the body of believers I worship with – I want to be able to put our praises together and welcome His presence in our midst.

One day I was asking God why it felt heavy, like no one was really singing to Him, it was ‘habit’. And I heard Him ask me, ‘What do you want?’ And I told Him (while praise was still going on I stopped to write this down so I’d remember it).

     I want to go into a place of worship and if even one ounce of flesh is on me…..it falls off! There is so much passion for God and for His people that nothing else can come in – we leave our pride, selfishness, fear, sickness, gossip, etc at the door.

Then I heard the Lord clearly say to me, ‘If we don’t come really seeking Him we squelch the Spirit. If we can’t find and rest in His joy we are losing the Light. We are to praise Him with all our might, to know what we are singing and why, it is beautiful to Him.

I believe if you want to see a move of God’s power, we need to know what we are singing, why we are singing it and make sure we focus on giving God the praise.

(c)Has Breath Publishing LLC

It Is Well

Have you ever been a passenger in a car and before you knew it; your foot was applying pressure to that imaginary brake pedal on the floorboard?  Well, you are not alone! This is the example the Holy Spirit has given me to learn how to give God complete control in every area of my life.  To start this lesson, I was lead to John 21:15-17 where Jesus asked Peter three times, if he loved Him and each time, Peter told the Lord that he did, without a doubt, love Him.  Then I heard in my spirit, “Do you trust me?”  After repenting, the Holy Spirit revealed to me some areas of my life that, if I would give up control, He would ensure that all would be well.   As I was getting ready for bed that evening, I asked the Father to teach me about trust, and show me what I needed to do to trust Him completely.  That next morning I woke up with the refrain from the song “It is Well with My Soul.”  Since all I knew was the refrain, I went to the internet to get the complete song.  The song is beautiful, however; it was the biography of the writer, a prominent lawyer by the name of Horatio Spafford that stuck a cord with me.  Here is just a snippet of his life: Following the death of his 4-year-old son, he experienced financial ruin after the great Chicago fire and the economic downturn of 1873.  Later, he planned a trip with his family to travel to Europe on the SS Ville du Havre.  At the last minute, Mr. Spafford sent his family ahead and stayed in Chicago to tend to some unresolved business. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship that carried his wife and four daughters sank after colliding with a sea vessel.  All four of his daughters died.  His wife was the only one that survived.  On the way to meet his grieving wife, Mr. Spafford was inspired to write the words to this song as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.  He and his wife later had three more children, one of which died in infancy.  They moved to Jerusalem and helped found the American Colony, a mission to help the poor.                  Click here to watch a video - Mr. Spafford After wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I opened my daily devotional and the title for that day was “It’s All Good” with 2 Kings 4:8-37 as the reference to read.   After reading the text, I took time to read the story about the Shunammite woman who, when her young son died, was not moved by what she saw or felt.  Instead, she said, “It is well.”  I’m not familiar with the lyrics to the song I woke up with, but I sing the refrain all the time now and the peace that comes over me is indescribable.  Since that day, I have made a choice to learn how to trust God.  Interestingly enough, I am discovering how trust has a direct correlation with faith.  Without faith, there is no trust.  I have much to learn about both.  My journey has just begun and I have a trustworthy driver.  He has a good plan for my life.  We are taking His vehicle and the route is loaded into His GPS (God’s Protective Shield)!  There may not be a radio, but I have a new song to sing.  I am along for the ride and “It is Well with my Soul”.                        It Is Well With My Soul - YouTube

Life of Praise

A Life of Praise

Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in mouth.” 

Meditate on that scripture a moment.

Notice that David says that he will bless the Lord at all times, not just sometimes or not just when everything in his life was going great. 

David constantly had enemies pursuing him, yet David chose to bless the Lord at all times. 

How many of us are actually hiding from enemies that are out to kill us? 

The faith and trust in God that David had was pretty intense. David knew that the Lord was upholding him, no matter what the circumstances looked like.

Psalm 63:8 says, “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

 David had a revelation of the importance of being close to God and not only that, but the importance of praising God. 

Some of us may have this idea that worship is in the sanctuary or worship is with music, but it is so much more than that. You can praise him with your mouth throughout the day whether you’re at work or in your car…anywhere. Notice that David didn't say he praised God when it was convenient or when he knew that he was safe from his enemy…no, it says that he would bless the Lord at all times.

I know that I need to work on this and I believe that the closer we cling to God that this will just be a natural product of that, but today I just want to challenge you to open your mouth more and praise God despite your surrounding circumstances. Know that God is with you and that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Remember that praise is an act of surrendering to God. 

Psalm 145:14 says, “The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” There is something about bowing down and surrendering to God and living that life of praise that makes the enemy cringe. 

Psalm 149:1-5

Psalm 149:1-5

Do you realize that choosing to give God praise in the midst of what seems like impossible circumstances will cause you to be joyful?

-*

God actually takes pleasure in you when you choose to give these things over to Him!

 

It says He will beautify the humble with salvation. That means He will gave you everything you need to overcome and shine through what looks like the impossible!

Salvation does not just mean that you have fire insurance from hell, but it means that God has provided everything that you need to defeat the works of satan!

Make a choice today to be joyful each day no matter what that day brings - by praising God for the victory in each situation!