Saturday Motivation! Winners praise to be raised! Let`s glow!
March 21st 2020
Saturday Motivation! Winners praise to be raised! Let`s glow!
Text:
Hebrews 13v15: Therefore by Him, let us continually offer thesacrifice of praise to God that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name.
1 Chronicles 16v 23: Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; proclaimthe good news of His salvation day after day.
John 4 v 24: God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship in the spirit and in truth
Psalm 99 v 1-3: The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he is enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the Lord in Zion; He is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and Awesome Name-He is holy
Psalm 99 v 5: Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool-He is holy.
Psalm 29 v 1 -5: Give unto the Lord oh you Mighty ones. Give unto the Lord Glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to His Name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of Majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
What is Praise to God!
Praise is the expression of approval or admiration to our God. It could be in form of a shout from a grateful heart. It could also be an exclamation or a joyful sound which bubbles from the heart. Praise does not always cost us something. For instance, dog owners would praise their dogs for fetching the ball and parents would praise their children for doing them proud.
Praise is often our response or reaction to an action that directly benefits us and which we feel generous about. We are therefore willing to extend it to others. We also find it easy to praise God through the same motivation especially when he does something awesome in our lives.
When God blesses us, we are happy and are encouraged to praise Him. We are therefore able to sing, worship and tell others about the goodness of God! That kind of praise does not cost us anything.
What about the praise that would cost us something. The kind of praise that God requires of us during the time of trials, hardship and tribulation. The kind of praise that our present situation does not warrant that we should accord Him praise for. The kind of praise that we decide to give to God even when it seems that our prayers are unanswered. The kind of praise we decide to give to God notwithstanding the fact that we thought God would comethrough for us one way and He came in a different way? For example; when the test result comes back positive instead of negative, when the stock market crashes and we lose millions of dollars, when we experience a Job-like situation, when it looks like God is so far away and He has forgotten us. Know this, God has not forgotten you and I even though the circumstances screams that He has forgotten us.
During perilous times, God wants us to praise Him more than ever. He says I should tell the whole world to praise Him, worship Him, serve Him and repent form our sinful ways so that He can heal our land.
To praise God at this time requires personal sacrifice. It takes an act of working in the Will of God for us to lay all our worries aside and praise a God we do not understand. Remember that His ways are not our ways and we cannot question Him or murmur against Him.
When we choose to praise God in difficult times, it means that we have chosen to believe that even though life is not going as we think it should, God is still good and can be trusted; Psalm 135v3.
When we choose to praise God in spite of the storms, He is honored and our faith grows deeper; Malachi 3v13-17. {Make sure to read this place out loud from the bible}.
Why should we praise God
Let`s find out from scriptures.
Psalm 96 v9: Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth!
God commanded us in scriptures to praise Him. We were created to praise and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
1 Chronicles 16 v29 says; ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His Name; bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
The command in Hebrews 13 v15 says that His sacrifice is to be offered continually. Our praise of God is not to be based on our opinion of His job performance.
Praise cannot be treated as a reward that we give to God only when He blesses us. We must not praise God with our mouths and honor Him with our lips when our hearts is far from Him.
When should we praise God
We should continue in real, undiluted and unadulterated praise to God notwithstanding the circumstances around us. Our praise to God must flow from a worshipping heart in good times and in bad times.
The sacrifice of praise comes from a humble heart that has been purified by fire. It rises from a spirit that has chosen to honor God in spite of the pain that life is causing. Psalm 51v 16-17expresses this idea when it says; You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings; The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart- These oh God, You will not despise.
How should we praise God
Let`s look at the account of Apostle Paul in the book of Romans 12 v 1-2: I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This passage is the answer to how we should praise God! The motivation to worship God as a result of His mercies, His goodness, His eternal love, blessings and comfort, forgiveness, reconciliation, sanctification; just to name a few and the understanding of the incredible gifts that He has showered us with motivates us to pour forth our praise and thanksgiving to Him!
Presenting our bodies means that we should give God all of ourselves. It means with all of our human faculties; with our hearts, mind, hands, thoughts and attitudes. It means we have to give up control of our physical and mental faculties and turn them over to God in praise and worship of His Holy Name. All these we have been commanded to do by the renewing of our minds.
We renew our minds daily through the Word of God. What we achieve by the Word of God is a cleansing of our minds and spirit of earthly wisdom and replacing it with heavenly wisdom.
We are to worship God with our emotions only if they are shaped by a mind that is saturated in truth. We should be conversant of the fact that where the mind goes, the will follows and so do our emotions.
We should remember that we have the mind of Christ and must not be conformed to worldly standards.
True praise or worship of God does not have to follow a particular pattern; it is God –centered worship.
It does not matter where you are, so long as it is done in spirit and in truth. It can include prayers, singing praise etc. It is not limited to a particular act.
Worship is reserved only for God for He alone is worthy and not any of His servants.
We are not to worship saints, prophets, statutes, angels, false gods, or Mary, the mother of Jesus.
We are also not supposed to praise or worship God in expectation of a reward in return. We are to worship God because He deserves it.
Praising God out of an obligation is displeasing to Him and is totally vain.
Model of our praise to God
According to scriptures, there is acceptable praise and unacceptable praise to God.
Let`s look at some examples;
Cain And Abel: The first sons of Adam and Eve. They both brought gift offerings to the Lord, but God was only pleased with Abel`s gift.
Cain brought God a gift out of obligation. Abel on the other hand brought his finest lambs from his flock. He brought God his gift out of admiration and faith.
Amos 5 v 21-24: is an example of praise that God detests; let`s read it; This is the Lord speaking here. He said; I hate, I despise your feast days. And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
The above scripture means that we should all quit trying to bribe God. He has had enough of the nonsense. When we all do as we like, yet our hearts are far from Him. When we pretend to gather for His Name sake, yet we are there to showcase the latest fashion as if we are on the runway. When we dance Yahoozee in our churches and hold unnecessary feast that do not glorify God. When we charge thousands of dollars in exchange for people tocome and watch our praise concerts. When we pretend as if we are most holy and most righteous yet heaven does not know our name. It is a pathetic state and the Lord hates it.
Let`s indulge in Praise that leads to a Raise
John 4 v23: But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.
Jesus paved the way for us all to have equal access to God. Our praise and worship to God should therefore be a matter of the heart, not external actions and from truth instead of ceremony.
Deuteronomy 6v4; compels us to love the Lord with all our heart, and with all our soul and with all our might. Our praise to God must flow from our love from Him. And this we must do with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We must be passionate for the things of God not because we expect a reward, applause or commendation but because we know that worshipping Him without passion can lead to a life of drynessand unfruitfulness.
Know this, when we praise God in spirit and in truth, we get a raise, a fulfilling experience the kind that Abel felt. This made his brother Cain very jealous.
We should remember that God inhabits the praises of His people. When praise from a grateful heart goes up to God, blessings comes down.
Should we continue in an attitude of praise wherever, whenever?
Some people will ask the question why should we continue in an attitude of praise to a God we cannot see. They ask this question because they do not know Him and therefore cannot praise Him.
Some can only praise God when they are at church. They cannot raise their voice in praise because they do not want their neighbors to think they are religious fanatics. Others cannot praise God because they do not want to disturb or upset their neighbors, so, they suspend praise to God till Sunday when they go to church.
Know this! True praise is not confined to what we do in church or in the open sphere. Even though this is good, our praise to God must not be limited to church. Imagine a situation where believers can no longer gather together to praise and worship God. Will praise to God end because of that? Absolutely not!
True worship is the acknowledgement of God and all His power and glory in everything we do, wherever we are, at any point in time.
The highest form of praise is obedience to God and His Word! To do this, we must know God; we cannot feign ignorance; Let`s look at the account of Apostle Paul in the book of Acts 17v23-25; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore the one whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you. God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men`s hands as though he needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Our praise to God must be continuous no matter our condition. Our praise must glorify and exalt God. It must show our love, loyalty and admiration to our heavenly Father. We must not cease to praise God no matter what may come our way! God wants us to praise Him more than He wants our prayers or our offerings.
Let us pray!
Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive us for we have all sinned. We have been more faithful to the things of this world than wehave been to you. We have been disobedient in so many ways and also in the way we praise you. Most often than not our praise to you has been in expectation of a reward from you.
Help us oh Lord to praise you the way you desire no matter our condition; in good and bad times, may your praise never depart from our lips; Do not be angry with us anymore Father. Accept our praise and worship Lord and prove yourself Mighty and strong by healing our Land, Nation, homes and families, in Jesus Mighty Name we pray! Amen!
Trillion Amen!
Shalom!