Let’s Just Praise the Lord
As I read through the book of Psalms I am finding more and more that the writers' were doing more praising of our Father than anything else. Some of us come before the Lord in prayer and I know for myself, from time to time, we are asking for this and asking for that. It's not bad, because the Lord told us in the book of James that we have not because we do not ask.
However, When I read the verse again (James 4:2), I understood it was a battle against our own covetous spirit. Why is it that when we come into His house on Sundays and during the week we are always coming to get something from God?
For the past few months I have found myself just coming into Daddy's presence with just praises on my lips. I have been seeing so much of how much I need to give glory to Him. I was putting myself in the place where David wrote, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God," (Psalm 42:1). I read the chapter and began to think of what good things I had been blessed with in spite of myself and I realized that I have nothing more to ask God for until I catch up with thanking Him for what He has done up until now.
We are such a blessed people and I think that sometimes we take for granted what we have. I am not saying that we have everything our hearts have desired, but I do believe that all of our needs have been met. When David says "I have been young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread," (Psalm 37:25) I think we can say that as well.
Can we take some time to remember to thank God for all He has done? I remember hearing a program and the narrator said that the next time we start to complain about what we don't have and what we want we should take a piece of paper and pencil and write down all the things we can that the Lord has done for us not forgetting to add the breath we breathe, the homes we have, the food we eat and the church family we've been blessed with. He then went on to say to go to a quiet place and thank God for each one of them individually. I think that if we did it more often we would realize that we haven't begun to scratch the surface of the blessings we have received from the Lord. I made an attempt to do this and began weeping before the Lord in thanksgiving because of His infinite mercy and love that He has for me.
When I think about all of the people in this world and the fact that God can meet us where we are and He has not forgotten about the tears we may have cried (Psalm 56:8) no matter when we cried them, it is indeed humbling. Each one of us is vitally important to Him. How can we not worship a God like that?! The more I see God's power manifested in the small things in my life and knowing that He is doing these and other great things for all of His family, I cannot help but praise Him. I know we already know He loves us, but just think about us from every land-all of us who name the name of Jesus; when we call He hears us and when we worship, He stands up and checks us out with pleasure. When you are in your next worship service, try exercising the scripture in Hebrews 13:15, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name," and see what a difference "praise" makes.
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This is the debut album by EXW friend Paul Langford. Paul is a Chicago based singer, arranger, keyboardist, producer and conductor. Paul has a career that spans 14 years. Paul's work includes arranging for groups like GLAD, Voices of Liberty, VoiceTrek, The Chicago based "Caroling Party" and Day of Discovery Singers. His arranging has appeared on recordings side by side with greats like Gene Puerling and David Maddux, and he has sung with Don Shelton, Bonnie Herman and Bob Bowker, among others.