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Made for Praise

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We were made to praise God, to worship God.  God does not need our praise in order to be complete, but without hearts that praise God, we will never find completeness.  When we find God, we find we do not need anything else.  Now not needing anything else and not wanting anything else are two different things.  We will still want other things, we will still feel incomplete.  We will still feel pain, we will still suffer.  

 

The problem is not that we have somehow missed God, the problem is sin.  Sin separates us from God, our own willful sin as well as the sin of Adam and Eve.  Our own willful sin we can confess and find forgiveness for, which turns us again to praise.  The byproducts of sin (ie. death and suffering) which we encounter as a result of living in a fallen world do not always come with so clear a path back to praise.  Suffering is a part of our earthly experience, still,  if in the midst of our pain and suffering, our sadness and emptiness, we can rise above our circumstances, and know and praise God...the power of sin is broken.  How do we rise above?  Not by our own abilities.  Praise is not something we choose to do, it is something God does in us as we choose Him, irrespective of our circumstances.  Praise can happen when life is not happening the way we want it to.  

 

It was Job’s response to the news of the death of all 10 of his children.

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.  And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’” Job 1:20,21 (ESV)

 

It was how Paul and Silas responded to being tossed into prison.  

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.”  Acts 16:25 (ESV)

 

It is not a natural or supernatural response of man, it is God’s power poured out in response to the heart that is turned towards Him.  It is what happens when we are swallowed up in something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our most all consuming suffering.  It is what happens when He reaches down and lifts us up to glimpses of His neverending glory.  May we come before His presence with praise.

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“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him!  

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;”  I Chronicles 16:29 (ESV)

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“I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,

and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.”  Psalm 7:17 (ESV)

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“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Romans 12:1 (ESV)

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God,

that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”  Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)

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