Coconut
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Messages
- 4,663
Single-hearted Praise
But as for me, I shall sing of Thy strength;
Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Thy lovingkindness in the morning.
For Thou hast been my stronghold,
And a refuge in the day of my distress.
0 my strength, I will sing praises to Thee
For God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness.
Psalm 59:16-17
It is easy to praise God when I see His goodness and feel His presence, but it takes faith to praise Him in times of darkness, loneliness, frustration, and failure. Yet, when I least feel or deserve His loving presence, I most need to praise Him.
The sacrifice of praise flows, not from joyful hearts, but from hearts that know God and long for deeper relationships with their King. These are the "pure in heart," and they shall see beyond all the earthly obstacles to God and His invisible Kingdom (Matthew 5:8).
When I choose to love God with all my heart, God's unseen realities become more real than the visible world. When I praise Him for what I neither see nor feel, my King makes those heavenly realities effective in and through my life.
Praise focuses my heart on God. This focus acts like a camera lens set for the horizon - the distant lights of His eternal plan become clearer than the immediate circumstances that crowd me. As I make Him my focal point, the confusions of my life begin to make sense.
My Shepherd promised to complete the work He began in me (Philippians 1:6). Therefore, He trains me to trust when I see no results, to hope when everything falls apart, to endure when the days grow unbearable, and to praise when I feel broken and rejected.
All through this process of sanctification, He reminds me that I have died, my self-life was crucified with Jesus. Like David, I am learning to sing, "I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken" (Psalm 16:8). Hallelujah!
Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
- taken from 'A Wardrobe from the King'
But as for me, I shall sing of Thy strength;
Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Thy lovingkindness in the morning.
For Thou hast been my stronghold,
And a refuge in the day of my distress.
0 my strength, I will sing praises to Thee
For God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness.
Psalm 59:16-17
It is easy to praise God when I see His goodness and feel His presence, but it takes faith to praise Him in times of darkness, loneliness, frustration, and failure. Yet, when I least feel or deserve His loving presence, I most need to praise Him.
The sacrifice of praise flows, not from joyful hearts, but from hearts that know God and long for deeper relationships with their King. These are the "pure in heart," and they shall see beyond all the earthly obstacles to God and His invisible Kingdom (Matthew 5:8).
When I choose to love God with all my heart, God's unseen realities become more real than the visible world. When I praise Him for what I neither see nor feel, my King makes those heavenly realities effective in and through my life.
Praise focuses my heart on God. This focus acts like a camera lens set for the horizon - the distant lights of His eternal plan become clearer than the immediate circumstances that crowd me. As I make Him my focal point, the confusions of my life begin to make sense.
My Shepherd promised to complete the work He began in me (Philippians 1:6). Therefore, He trains me to trust when I see no results, to hope when everything falls apart, to endure when the days grow unbearable, and to praise when I feel broken and rejected.
All through this process of sanctification, He reminds me that I have died, my self-life was crucified with Jesus. Like David, I am learning to sing, "I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken" (Psalm 16:8). Hallelujah!
Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
- taken from 'A Wardrobe from the King'
