Thursday, June 26, 2008

~Thankful Thursdays with JC~

GET YOUR PRAISE ON!!!

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”

These are the words to the Doxology, a song I heard every Sunday when I was growing up in the United Methodist Church. I found myself singing/praying these words today. I sing it a lot in fact. It is a little tune that just comes naturally.

I have a question for you... Is it difficult for you to praise Him? I so hope your answer is a big, NO. I hope praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He does come naturally to you. But, if praise doesn’t come naturally, it is O.K. Because, if you ask him, he will even help you to praise him. Look at the Psalms and the Prophets, sometimes the author will start out so low and then a few verses later he is in praise.

Even in our distress over whatever is going on in our lives, He is faithful. Don’t let the enemy distract you. If he can get you distracted, he can blind side you with doubt, fear, disappointment, hurt, illness, etc. Sure, negative thoughts, events and circumstances come to us all but we have an Advocate, who pleads our case before the Father, His name is Jesus. His burden is light. Scripture tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us. Let Him carry it and you GET YOUR PRAISE ON.

Read Psalm 40 where David gives praise for answered prayer. It is awesome. Now that is a Psalm that will make you happy, I don’t care who you are.

Father,

I praise You. If the created can bless the Creator then, Father I bless You. You are my all in all. There is nothing man can do to me because I am safe in You. Father, thank You for sending Your son. Oh, how You love me!!!! That You considered me and lifted me up to be called one of your very own; I am so very honored and humbled. Thank You for the safety of my family as they were traveling this week. Thank You for the neighborhood I live in and the safety I feel here. Thank You for causing me to see new things every day in the same places. A new feast for my eyes in the same places but ever changing. Thank You for every person that will read the postings on the site. Father bless each of us with a hunger to know You more, show us Your grace/favor in every aspect of our every day life. Thank You for Your mercy in that You give us what we need and not what were deserve.

In Jesus’ precious, powerful and holy name I pray.

Amen.

4 comments:

j said...

Carol, you have just blessed my heart but GOOD with your joyful spirit. I am so thankful that you are willing to lead by example in how to Praise God!

I love you!!!!

Jen

Deb said...

A similar Psalms is found in chapter 56. I needed to read that so badly the other day. He spoke to me through that Psalm and I felt uplifted.

I once was reading "A Conversation With God", a book that I disagree with a lot of, but there was one section that stated that if our God needed praise, then he was "conceited", and why does God need praise if he is a God?

See, that's when I step back and say, that's a total distraction from the devil to get us to believe that we don't need to praise Him. So then, we stop worshiping Him -- to the point of resentment for the need to praise Him.

(I hope that made sense.)

But yes... I PRAISE HIM. !!! !!!

Without Him, I am nothing.

Tiz said...

I read your post and then went walking this morning. I had the best praise time while walking. I do that a lot!!!! He truly is worthy of our praise. Plus when we are praising we can't be complaining or griping!!!!

concerned parent said...

Praise has come very esily for me and I find such comfort in bad and in good times when I let that praise flow. It was what I was created for.