When
Giving Praise – Speak the Word
It
used to amaze me when someone could stand up in church during testimony time
and speak praise after praise about the Lord and what He did in their
life. It was like they never ran out of
ways to praise Him. I do not know about
you but there have been times in my life when, even though I love God for Who
He is and all He has done for me, I found myself speechless and at a loss of
words. It is like my mind lost its
ability to come up with a way to express what I was experiencing and feeling
deep inside for Him. Imagine a writer
at a loss for words!
I
learned something important about this at Mission School; we need to become
exposed to praise to become more proficient in it. Sure, I listened to others praise God but
that did not seem to be enough. The change
came when I started speaking out loud the praise I read in the Bible.
“Praise
the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in
His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His
mighty acts; Praise Him according to [the abundance of] His greatness.” – Psalm 150:1-2 AMP
God’s Word is filled full of praise
of and to Him. I was determined to
become a woman of praise so I dug into the Psalms. I would read them out loud, think, and
meditate on what I read. I made it a
conscious decision to give Him praise every day.
“I will give thanks and praise the Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell aloud all Your wonders and
marvelous deeds.” –Psalm
9:1 AMP
As
I kept speaking out and contemplating the praise I found in God’s Word I found
my spiritual vocabulary of praise growing and manifesting itself in my prayer
life as well as when I participated in group prayer in church. Praise was permeating my life in every
area. It was then that I noticed a “side
effect” of becoming a woman with an attitude of praise; I started seeing all
the negative circumstances in my life fold themselves into victories.
And
now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; therefore I
will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle; I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the LORD. –Psalm 7:26 JUB
The more I rose victorious above my
circumstances, the more I found to give God praise about! Wow!
The next thing I noticed was that as I read other books of the Bible I
noticed a lot more verses with worship and praise. I also noted that there is an affect to those
around us when we are a people of praise.
And at midnight Paul
and Silas prayed, and sang praises
unto God: and the prisoners heard them. – Acts 16:5 AMP
Did
you notice that? “…and the prisoners HEARD them!”
Imagine how much more effective we would be in our witness of Jesus if
we prayed and sang like Paul and Silas did.
If that is not enough to convince us to strive to become men and women
of praise how about Ephesians 1:6, 12 which tells us we are the “praise of His glory”? Imagine how this world would change if we
committed ourselves to fully fulfill being the praise of His glory?
So,
here is the challenge I dare you to step into:
make a searching and fearless inventory of your life as you spent it
yesterday. Do not give thanks NOW for
what happened yesterday, but rather truthfully examine everything you did
from the time you got up until the time you went to bed. Make a list of everything you gave god praise
for. Now, admit to yourself whether your
praise was lacking or just adequate. If
it was either then it is time for you to step-it-up! I’ve given you the first step; get into the
Psalms and speak the Word out loud. Are
you ready to become the “praise of His
glory”?
So
through Jesus we should never stop offering our sacrifice to God. That
sacrifice is our praise, coming from lips that speak his name. –Hebrews 13:15 ERV
