So often we hear or even say the phrase "Praise the Lord!" Does the term 'Praise the Lord' when said actually praise the Lord? WHAT praises the Lord? Look closely at Psalm 69:30-31.
“I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God." According to David, the author of Psalms, SONGS and THANKSGIVING are what praise God, but not only praise Him, they also please Him! I have met Christians who believe paying tithes is sufficient enough in pleasing God. It seems as if they believe doing it will take the place of becoming intimate or having any real relationship with God. It's almost as if they seem to be buying their salvation which we all know cannot be done. Let me ask you this. If a person were to pray/beg you to give him/her $10,000, what is the first thing you would consider? A relationship! Is there any kind of relationship between you and the person? You're not going to bless and hand over $10,000 to a stranger you do not know. The same principle applies to Jesus. When you go to Jesus praying, fasting, asking, the first thing Jesus looks at is if He and you have a relationship. Because receiving anything from heaven does not depend on our prayers, fasting, tithing, offerings, sacrifices, or our works. But it does depend on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
According to "religion" the thinking is, receiving from God depends on their prayers, good works, and efforts to please God, but to us in Jesus Christ, receiving anything from heaven depends on His Grace and His finished work on the Cross. Thus, it is our personal relationship with Him not our works towards Him. This is the reason Jesus said, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt 6:33). It's not by praying, fasting, sacrificing, offerings, tithing, or benevolent works toward God but rather by seeking Jesus Christ first. Notice the verse above does not say to pray, fast, or offer tithes, etc, but it says to seek Jesus Christ. It’s not a mistake. A man can do all these works but not be seeking Jesus Christ. Hear that! You have seen people in your own life who want things from you but not you. They are not interested in having a relationship with you, they want what they can get from you. Most of the people who do these works; fasting tithing, offerings, sacrifices, charitable deeds, etc, want things of Jesus but not Jesus Himself! They want His healing miracles, wonders, blessings, salvation, etc. but they do not want a relationship with Him. Remember, the Pharisees could do all these things but they had no personal relationship with Jesus. And so the world and religious people do all these things without a personal individual relationship with Jesus. A person without a relationship with you only comes to you when in need but a person with a relationship with you is with you whether in need or not, in happy times in sad times, in-season out of season, mourning, or rejoicing, etc.
What about you? Check yourself. Do you only go to Jesus when in need or in troubling times? Most of the world prays, so do religious folks (represented as Pharisees in the scriptures), but what is the difference between them and the true followers of Jesus Christ known and referred to as the Bride of Christ? The Bride of Christ has an intimate, personal individual relationship with Jesus Christ, whereas the world and religious people do not. If you are of Jesus Christ and truly have an intimate, personal relationship with Him, God knows your needs even before you ask (Matt 6:8). And He begins working out things for your good. When in a perfect personal relationship with Jesus, He takes care of all our needs automatically for it is His promise as our Father! Are you pursuing a relationship with Jesus or you are pursuing His things? Praise and thanksgiving should be the lifestyle of every believer. Every praiseful Christian is a joyful Christian and every joyful Christian will always carry the presence of God around. The Bible tells us that "in the presence of God there is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). When we praise God, we command His attention. When we praise God, He steps into our situations. When we praise God, we let Him know that we trust Him even in the midst of our trials.
To praise God means to magnify God and to magnify God means to make God bigger than our situations and circumstances. We need to learn to praise God because of who He is, not because of what he will do in our lives. In 2 Chronicles 20:20-24, we can see the Israelites praising God in the midst of their battles. In Acts 16:25, we can see Paul and Silas praising God while in chains. Praise should be our lifestyle irrespective of the situations or circumstances we see ourselves in. Every time we praise God through song and thanksgiving, we let Him know that we still recognize His supremacy over our challenges. We let Him know that we trust and believe He is still in control of our lives. There are just too many things to praise God for if we would just take a moment to stop and count our blessings. Have you given thanksgiving to Him today? No? Then sing to Him. Don't be shy. He likes it! Sings praises, sing of things you're thankful for, sing His Word to Him, etc.
Until He comes,
-Pat-
No comments:
Post a Comment