GO AHEAD; I DARE YOU TO PRAISE HIM!

God be merciful to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!
For You shall judge the people righteously,
And govern the nations on earth.  Selah
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Then the earth shall yield her increase;
God, our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us,
And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him (Psalm 67 New King James Version).

I cannot say enough how praising God opens doors we are not able to open; how praising our Creator gives Him the go ahead to move on our behalf. Sometimes, in the midst of our darkest moments, in the middle of our most adverse circumstances, when we have prayed all we can pray, cried all we can cry, pleaded all we can plead…we just need to tip our heads back and open our mouths in praise. This is especially helpful in those times when we do not understand what it is we are going through, and cannot see the outcome. In 2 Chronicles 20, we see how God delivered Jehoshaphat’s enemies into his hands by having the people singing praises go out before the army. Today’s scripture says the earth will yield her increase and God shall bless us as we praise Him. God’s battle strategy is not our strategy.

When we praise the Lord, we put our trust in Him. When He has our trust, then we can truly worship Him. Praise is loud, joyous, filled with song, melody, instruments, giving God the glory. It is cheerful when we are not; it is putting aside ourselves and focusing on God. Worship is how we live our lives in relation to God; when we obey the Lord, we worship; when we use the gifts He’s given us for His kingdom, we worship; when we bow before Him crying or laughing, in gratitude or repentance, we worship; when we offer Him our whole self for His use, we worship. As we come before the Lord in worship, we will find it is easier to praise Him; and when we praise Him unreservedly, we will find it is easier to offer all we do as worship. A lot of times, our circumstances appear stacked against us and we try very hard to manipulate those circumstances to minimize our pain, and we try to fix them ourselves, when all God requires of us is to open our mouths and give Him praise so He can bring us through.

Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this wonderful morning! We are blessed to have such a Gracious Father who grants us tender mercies by opening our eyes for another day! Thank You! Father, it is our prayer that we utilize and seize every opportunity to bring You glory and praise today. Grant us boldness and courage to speak of You when we otherwise would be afraid. Grant us eyes to see You in everything, and ears to hear Your Holy Spirit speaking to us. May we have hearts that praise You continuously, may we have hands that are quick to rise up to You, may our feet move swiftly for You. May we fully understand that all we do is an act of worship, and we seek forgiveness for those times when our worship was not pleasing to you. Lord, help us to recognize when the world is seeking to steal Your glory, help us to learn to not succumb to the lure of this world and to keep our eyes focused on heavenly treasure. We thank You for our circumstances because we know that You are in complete control, and what You allow to happen are ways to draw us closer to You. May we recognize these moments and come running back to Your feet, staying longer each time! We love You, we want to please You only. Father, You are love, You are truth, You are faithful. We give You all glory, all honor and all praise! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today’s Attitude of Worship: Philippians 4:8-9 says “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” I encourage you today to look for things that include truth, nobility, justice, purity, loveliness, good reports, virtuous or are praiseworthy in the circumstances in which you find yourself. God is in every situation, praise Him and watch what He will do!

Additional Scripture: Psalm 136, 2 Chronicles 20:20-22; Job 1:20-21

Shalom,

Prudence