Praise part 1
Sometimes I like to take things that we have taken for granted, and really look at them. Tipping over sacred cows, some call it. So for the next few days, let's talk about praise. And let's talk about how some people seem to think that we need to praise God in order to get Him to do something. Think about that for a minute. Really think about it. The all powerful Creator of heaven and earth... depends on us for His motivation to do something? "Like this post so Jesus will heal this person." Yikes. That doesn't seem right to me. Seems absurd, if I can be perfectly honest. Like we're trying to almost trick God into doing what we want Him to do. That's not praise. Praise comes when someone does something praiseworthy. I don't praise my kid when he messes up. I praise him when he does something awesome. So, let's look at my memory verse for this Rant series: Psalm 13:6, "I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." Did you catch that? We don't praise Him in order to get Him to deal a certain way with us. We praise Him because of HOW He has dealt with us. And, really, that's the best part of our God. The God who is love. He knows the thoughts He thinks toward us. Thoughts of peace and not evil. To bring us an expected end. He only has good thoughts for us. He only has good intentions toward us. Everything He does is for our benefit. And that's praiseworthy. When you start to experience the goodness of God in your life--the goodness of God that leads men to repentance--it will jerk a praise out of you. It will fill you up so much that that very goodness will overflow out of you. And you won't even be worried about trying to get God to do what you want. You'll be much more interested in doing what GOD wants you to do. You'll be so full of God--so full of LOVE--that the only thing that will matter to you will be GIVING what you have instead of trying to get what you think you don't have. Praising isn't about getting. It's about being thankful for what you've got. Love isn't about getting. It's about giving what you've got. Knowing and believing that you have something worth giving is what equips and empowers you to, you know, give it. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. But if you're trying to make something happen, or get something, that means you don't know and believe that you have something. And that's a problem. We have no lack because our God has no lack. We have everything we need because God has given it to us. Because He wanted us to have it. Because He loves us. And that, friends, is worthy of praise. Receiving what He has given us and using what He has given us is HOW we praise Him. Using His gift wisely, like that good and faithful servant, is praising God. It's not always about singing. Or saying, "How great is our God." Those things have their place. I'm not saying they don't. But I want to look at praise in a different way. "Thank you" is a pretty good way to praise someone. Especially when they've given you everything they have and everything they are. You don't praise in order to get something. You praise because you've got something. And you praise the person who has given it to you... by being a good steward of what you've been given!