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Sunday, August 30, 2009

A Sacrifice of Praise

For me going through a trial is easy in the beginning. When I'm faced with a trial the first thing I start to do is listen my praise & worship music. I start to quote Scriptures while I go about my daily rituals. I might even stop in the middle of doing laundry and rejoice by doing a Texas-two step (dance). Why? Because I know that trials don't last forever. But what about the trial that seems to have no end in sight?

During this journey with Christ, I have gone through some trials that were long. It was difficult for me to praise God in the midst of them. Those Scriptures that were being quoted started to cease because my flesh got tired and weary. Then one day it dawned on me that I need to praise no matter what my circumstances were, how much money I had or didn't have in the bank or what my present surroundings looked like. I had to offer up a sacrifice of praise. How do I offer a sacrifice of praise? I couldn't really answer that question until I understood what it meant to offer a sacrifice of praise.

Sacrifice - The act of making an offering to a deity, in worship or atonement. To give up,
yield or relinquish for the sake of something else, as a person, thing, or idea.

Praise - To express adoration of; glorify.

I realized in order to continue offering up an expression of adoration and glorifying my Lord, I had to deal with me first. Praise to God begins with self.

Psalms 103:1-2, Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.

Oh at times how I quickly forgotten all His benefits. Just like an earthly child has benefits from his or her natural father, I have benefits because of my Heavenly Father. The opposite of Praise is forgetfulness. To forget the benefits of the Lord is to disregard His covenant Lordship.

Praise is due to God because He answers prayer!
Praise is due to God because He is the King of Kings!
Praise is due to God because He is the creator of all things!

The commitment to praise the Lord requires a disassociation from dependency on other people. You can't look for man to praise God for you because you're "going through." He's your God. He's your Savior. He's your Deliver. Praise Him because he is worthy!

Psalm 18:3 - I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

The saints from old had a saying that would always get me on the right track. They used to tell me "I dare you to praise God and see won't He come through for you!" Today, I daring you to praise God and see what happens.


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6 comments:

  1. MaryAugust 30, 2009 at 3:47 PM

    Hey, Sandra, where you been?

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  2. UnknownAugust 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM

    Praising His Holy Name. He is so worthy to be praised. I will praise Him with all that is within me. Thank you for this on time word.

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  3. Love Abounds At HomeAugust 30, 2009 at 6:08 PM

    Hello Mary :)
    I'm still here. I've been busy making a quilt. I've been having problems leaving comments on some of the blogs I visit. I've been trying to figure out why.
    I have so much to check up on. Things are going well for us here in Vancouver :)

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  4. GammySelAugust 31, 2009 at 6:46 AM

    Thank you dear Sister for the reminder of the benefits we have in the L-rd. It is so hard to lift your head when you are going through trials, but Praise the L-rd for His faithfulness to us!
    May I be more faithful to praise even in those really hard times.

    Blessings
    Angie

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  5. DeannaAugust 31, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    Blessings, Sandra!
    Howdy from Kansas. Hope all is going well in your new location. Some moves seem to go easier than others. So hope all is well with you and yours.

    My brother that you asked about with diabetes is still in the hospital.

    I had it in my mind that he was having to have one shot a day and this pained me, but found out he is having 4 shots a day. I was floored. APPRECIATE PRAYERS!!!

    Thank you for being a blogger friend. This is neat...no matter where you live, in only a matter of minutes we can communicate.

    Praising God in the lean years, the hard times, the challenging times is not always an easy thing, but then when something is well worth doing it isn't always the easy thing.

    God bless ya,
    d

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  6. ~Lisi P.September 1, 2009 at 3:15 AM

    I never understood what "sacrifice of praise" meant until my Pastor mentioned it & explained it in a sermon. No matter what is going on, we must praise God, despite of our situation or circumstances: we must offer praise to Him!!!!

    Thanks for the reminder. It's always good to have some good praise music & scriptures to help us through each day :)

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