L.Y.F.E. is………
Blessings and greetings L.Y.F.E. family!
Welcome to another edition of “L.Y.F.E. is…”!
We hope and pray that your hearts are encouraged and that you are blessed by this devotional!
Title: Why Praise to God is Important!
Scripture: “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.” Psalm 22:3 (NIV)
Praise is one of the most powerful spiritual weapons we have today and a gift from God!
The reasons and importance of why we praise God is evident all throughout the Bible.
Praising God means telling and expressing how wonderful, how great, and how awesome we believe God is and how much we love God. It is the act of magnifying and glorifying God simply for being God all by Godself. We praise God when God has done something good on our behalf. This can be done with the expression of words, for example through prayer, singing, or writing. There are other modes of expression such as dance, painting a picture, or simply opening your heart to God in love during a moment of quiet stillness or reflection and meditation.
In our sacred scripture text, we find David in a state of feeling forsaken, abandoned, and in despair when David feels that his cries and prayers for help seem to go unanswered by God. Many of us can relate to David as we sometimes get to a point of unbearable, never seen before challenges and it seems like God has withdrawn God’s help from us and the least we want God to do for us is to hear our cry and plea for help. Yet David, in his state of helplessness, could not but acknowledge the goodness, holiness, and faithfulness of the LORD. God does not inhabit the complaints of God’s people; rather God inhabits the praise of God’s people. Whether life is going well or times get tough; one thing is certain-God is faithful!
So just why is praise to God so important?
The Bible teaches us, in fact commands us to praise God who is good and has done great things. We should make praising God part of our everyday lives. We honor God for God’s goodness, grace, and mercy. We praise God say, “Thank You(LORD)”; we praise God because God is deserving and worthy of our praise; we praise God because praise ushers us into the presence of God and invites God into our situation; and praise helps to develop and build our relationship with God.
We are to always praise God, in good times and in bad times. God is always with us and God always hears us. God is omniscient and God is omnipresent. God promised to never leave us nor forsake us. We should praise God in the storm and in the sunshine.
We praise God for loving us so much that God gave God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. God is our Creator; our Provider; our Sustainer; our Healer; and our Savior.
Psalm 22 reminds us that our praise should not be directed to ourselves or those around us nor our accomplishments nor what we’ve done nor even our material possessions. But all the praise and glory belongs to God!
Praise the LORD!
Memory Scripture: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” Psalm 150:6 (NIV)
GOD bless and love you all!
