Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8 21 2023
The Sacrifice of Praise – How do you do that? Part 1 of 2
The reality is, we might check the go-to worship box at church and somehow think we’re good for the week. And yet all the while our souls are distant and cold. We are waiting for something to Improve before we celebrate God’s faithfulness instead of trusting Him at the debacle’s beginning.
We sing words, we listen to music, and then go home and by Monday were unchanged and uncharged.
The truth is offering the sacrifice of praise is a sacrifice. I may not feel like it. Or think God has let us down or maybe He appears distant and doesn’t really care about what we’re struggling or fretting over. We may be just trying to hold it together and put the broken pieces back together again.
Who even thinks about the sacrifice of praise? Really?
I think it takes courage and faith to fix your eyes on Christ and give him praise no matter what’s happening in front of us. I have found over and over again in the midst of crying in my offering of praise and surrendering to His will in my problem… that somewhere in the process, God has already begun to release the grip of those situations on me. But YOU must step into the water of faith first!
His word says, “to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”.
Isaiah 61:3
TRUTH: Some days are more complex than others. TRUTH: Sometimes the wait is unbearable, and we feel we’re in despair without hope. But HE PROMISES to bring beauty instead of ashes, joy instead of morning, and praise instead of despair. By reading His word and taking in His promises… we…one step at a time, begin to trust what He can do for us, and in us. Perhaps the FACT that we are totally unable to do anything anyway should be a bit of a motivator to take God at His word.
He continues on in Isaiah to say that when we do this: “they… WE… will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor”.
I lost half of a finger when I was five years old. And when I was young, I was often self-conscious and despairing that I was so different from others, and it would never change. My mother would always point out someone without a hand or foot or leg and say, see how blessed you are? Mom would say: when you’re really feeling down and defeated go out and serve someone else. Go feed the hungry, help the helpless, and your problems won’t be so heavy. In effect, getting my focus off of ME.
Praising and worshiping God in the midst of our darkness gets our focus off of ourselves and back on God. Life is not all about us. And although my feelings are justified and pretty normal. And a period of mourning and learning to deal with pain is natural. Unchecked, we can grow deeper into despair and bitterness and that is so completely destructive. As humans, we’re prone to selfishness and pride. (Ever have to teach a 3-year-old to be selfish?) Yet God asks us to set our eyes firmly on Him because that’s where our true hope is found. Reading His word is a constant reminder that He is worthy of our praise, no matter what we face every day. (Psalm 150 and 35:28) Just reading… changes us day by day.
Praise and worship pave the way for God’s power to be displayed, and for miracles to happen. He changes our lives during worship. He knows how to shake up the impossible… remember Paul and Silas in prison when the jail doors flew open? Acts 16:25-26
Lord help me to lay down these areas of my life, as many times a day as is necessary. Help me in my unbelief to trust you and your path for my life. Lord, I know you want the best for me. Help me to praise you in my storm
Matt Redman. Let there be wonder
Excerpts taken from: Debbie McDaniel “What it means to offer God a sacrifice of praise”.
