I am entreating you, then, brethren, by the pities of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice, living, holy, well pleasing to God, your logical divine service, and not to be configured to this eon, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for you to be testing what is the will of God, good and well pleasing and perfect.
Paul To The Romans 12: 1-2, Concordant New Testament
I was thinking this week of the process of offering praise to the Lord. Back in my days in the institutional church, I could always count on the choir and worship band to blare out a few praise and worship songs before the Sunday service even began. Some were the traditional Christian hymns which my mother grew to love in her time, while others were the blaring songs of a new age of believers. Either way, it was understood that we needed to sing our praises to God. In fact, the scriptures also call upon us to offer our praises to the Father {Psalm 100:1-5, Paul To The Ephesians 5:19, Acts Of The Apostles 16:25}. Not only are we to offer praises to the Lord in Sunday services, but any time we feel the need to thank Him, which is A LOT. Personally, I have felt the need to praise the Father a lot as of late. I am well aware of what He has brought forth in me as well as what He has promised me. He alone is responsible for the person which I have become. It is the Father who resides in me. Nobody understood this better than the apostle Paul, who speaks of the indwelling Father in Galatians {Paul To The Galatians 2:20}. Knowing all which the Father has crafted in us, why would He not be absolutely worthy of our thankfulness and praise? Yet, there are Christians out there who feel that they cannot offer up prayers to the Father without first offering praises to Him beforehand. This creates a "Process of prayer" which many believers seem to embrace. We come to the Father and offer praises to Him before hitting Him with our prayer requests. To be honest, far too many Christians view prayer as a wish list instead an of intimate conversation with God. There have been many times where my own prayers have been nothing but praises and gratitude to the Father for all He has done. For that He is certainly worthy.
Let the word of Christ be making its home in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing yourselves; in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs, singing, with grace in your hearts to God.
Paul To The Colossians 3: 16, Concordant New Testament
Growing up, I remember my mother working around the house while singing her favorite hymns. I believe that in her heart, she knew that He was indeed worthy of the praise and thankfulness she offered Him. In my day, I consider how the Father views the praises offered to Him by His children. I believe that it absolutely brings joy to God when His children offer praise unto Him. However, let us not fall into the trap that our praises to the Father are a down payment to our prayer requests. Instead, let our praises BE a definite part of our daily prayers. Let our praise be part of our daily prayer conversation with the Father. Personally, I know where my bread is buttered! I know in my heart that it is the Father who is responsible for all which occurs in my life and my world. Knowing this, I not only offer praises unto Him in the good times, but also when things are not going so good. I remember His servant Job, who not only praised God in his wealth, but in his despair as well {Job 1:10}. In fact, throughout his ordeal, Job remained faithful. How many of us can make that claim? How many believers can honestly say that they have offered praise to the Lord when things in their lives were not so good? I can't testify to that. Indeed, there have been times in my life where I felt defeated and the last thing on my mind was to offer praise and thankfulness unto the Lord. It is critical in these times that we see the Father in all which surrounds us. He is all in all! He is not only in us, but in our worst enemy as well. He is not only working in our life, but in the lives of all His children. He is in all which we will ever see. Knowing this, why would we not offer our praises to Him? He is worthy not only of our praise, but of the glory of all His creation.
~Scott~
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