Praise God!
Often times we say “Praise the Lord” or “Hallejuah” without remembering what it actually means. It is easy to say things that you don’t mean. According to the dictionary, the praise someone means to express admiration. And to sing someone’s praises is to praise someone publicly and enthusiastically.
I’ll talk about 2 things.
Firstly, why do we praise the Lord? There’s always a reason to.
There was a little old lady who would come out every morning on the steps of her front porch, raise her arms to the sky, and shout, "Praise the Lord!"
Well, one day an atheist moved into the house next door. Over time, he became irritated at the little old lady. So every morning he would step out onto his front porch and yell after her, "There is no Lord!"
Time passed with the two of them carrying on this way every day. Then one morning in the middle jof winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted, "Praise the Lord! Lord, I have no food and I am starving. Please provide for me, oh Lord!"
The next morning, She stepped onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there. "Praise the Lord!" she cried out. "He has provded groceries for me!"
The atheist jumped out of the hedges and shouted, "There is no Lord. I bought those groceries!" The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted, "Praise the Lord! He has provided me with groceries, and He made the devil pay for them!
There is a chief reason why we praise God. It is because He is worthy. He is the creator of the universe. He created you and me, and just like how the pot is a testament to the potter, we should praise Him. Every service is a celebration, to celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will be doing. Is there quiet celebration? No. we have to open our mouths and celebrate. James 3:9-12
9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
God gave us a mouth, and with this mouth we can praise God or we can curse men. God obviously does not want us to curse men, therefore we can only say that God gave us mouths to give him praise.
Now we move on to the second point, how do we praise God? The bible in Psalms 35:28
My tongue will sing of your righteousness and of your praises all day long
says we should give him praise all day long. Praise should be rightfully given despite our circumstances. In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail, yet they were praising God.
There’re a few ways to praise God, first of all by singing. the whole of psalms and songs of Solomon are songs unto God.
Secondly by dancing (Psalms 149:3)
Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.
Thirdly by sharing testimonies and being a testimony. (psalms 22:22) (matthew 5:16)
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.
If we do not praise god, Luke 19:40 says the rocks will. In a way the rocks are shaming us. Trees wave their branches and birds chirp, but if we who have mouths to speak don’t praise god, we will be shamed.
norman.
Posted by exquisite me, @
12:22 PM
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