Praise is powerful. The other night I was reading Joyce Meyer's book "The Power of Simple Prayer" and was reminded about how praise is one form of prayer.In thinking about praise, I think of the act of offering up to the Lord, words or songs of adoration. Joyce Meyer takes it further and describes the act of praising as "our response to God for what He has done, is doing and will do." She differentiates this from the act of worship where it is a "response to who He is." (p. 83).
What I like about praise is that it does a couple of things. First, it glorifies God. Secondly, it takes our focus off of ourselves and onto the Lord. When we begin to focus on God, it does a couple of things; (1) diminishes the intensity of our own needs and (2) opens up our hearts and minds to receive direction from the Holy Spirit.
When I went to look up scriptures on praise, I was amazed at how many times the word "praise" is used in the Bible! When we are born again, we naturally want to praise the Lord. However, it is something we must learn to practice. Our natural man does not always do that because we don't always want to put God first.
God inhabits the praises of His people. Praise Him!
The Lord Lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior! (2 Samuel 22:47)
But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more! (Psalm 70:14)
Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise. (Psalm 47: 6-7)
One practical way to praise God is by starting off your prayer by praising first. "Lord, thank you for meeting my financial needs. I praise you Lord for ministering to my children." Be specific in your praise to Him. He knows you and wants to have a relationship with you.
If you are not sure how to praise Him. Simply, worship Him. Say, "I love you Lord. Thank you for being in my life. Thank you for your Word that is coming alive in my heart. Thank you for guiding me and helping me for making decisions that will glorify you." There is no right or wrong way to praise, worship or pray to God.
As I am typing this, I can feel the Holy Spirit leading me. He is so amazing. You can't praise God without it immediately putting you in touch with Him! God is so awesome! I know that this message is going to minister to someone. It is stirring something up in my spirit. Something that I have neglected in myself.
Another practical way to praise God is to journal. Either keep a private journal if you like to write, or an electronic journal like this blog.
One great way to praise God is to fill your mind with Christian music. Surround yourself with Praise and Worship music. Find a Christian radio station. If you've never listened to Christian music, there are many great artists and many great styles now. It is amazing what this will do to your spirit. It is so uplifting to wake up and Praise God on your way to work!
I encourage each of you, (and am reminding myself also) praise Him throughout your day. It will change your heart, mind, attitude, and how you act and behave towards other people. I believe it opens the "ears" of your heart and allows you to be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. (Psalm 103: 1, of David)
2 comments:
This is good stuff Tina! One of the scriptures I like is Psalm 22:3. "God inhabits the praises of his people". Once our mind gets quiet enough and we cross the treshhold from "mental ascent" to praising Him from our spirits, He is there with us. I've "experimented" with this is different places, such as the noisy saw mill I wokred at for years. Amidst all of the noise of the machinery and the dust evac system, sweat and labor, God visited.
I also liked how you said there is no wrong way way to praise or worship God. I took up an offering once and was relating giving to a form of worship. I cant remember how I tied it all in, but i do recall saying how much God loves us to tell him how much we love him. I asked the congregation "who among us that are parents ever tire of our children crawling in our laps and having them look up at us and saying 'I love you Daddy/Mommy'?" It never grows old. If we love it how much more God.
I might have a few differnt thoughts on "no wrong way to pray", but I'll save that for another time.
You organize your thoughts very well, and its flows nice =D
Thanks for the blog. Very well written sister! God bless. I enjoyed the read. Keep em' coming.
-- Christian L.
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