Saturday, October 13, 2012

What is Praise and Worship?



                Praise and worship is the last part of the five ways of spiritual growth. Why is praise and worship a part of this? Well, praise and worship lifts the heart to God and invited Him into your presence. When you give Him praise and worship, you lift yourself above the worldly things and overcome the flesh. You can overcome any emotion, any trial, any feeling or thoughts through praise and worship. Through this act, you lift yourself above yourself and your situations and bring yourself before the Lord.

                On top of this, it is the way in which we should serve the Lord. "Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!" (Psalm 100:2) Why should we not be singing out of joy for what God has done for us? He saved us from death! We will sing a song in public because it has a good beat, but we won't sing a song about the God who loves us and saves us just in case we get offended? There is not a song in the world that will not offend someone. Even kid songs will offend some people who feel that they are too old to hear that type of music. It is impossible to please everyone, so why try? Why not just please God, the maker of Heaven and Earth and the one who saved you and loves you?

                If we ever come before God not feeling well about it, or feeling tired of praying, let us put praise into our time with Him! "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name!" (Psalm 100:4) This will lift up your spirit and put you in the mindset of how amazing God is! It is your weapon against negative emotions! Psalm 103:1-2 says, "bless the Lord, oh my soul, and let all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not His benefits." Sometimes we just are not feeling praise and worship. That is when we need to speak to our souls and tell it to praise God! Why? Because God has been too good for you to not praise His holy name! At all times we should be blessing the Lord and giving Him praise and worship!

                We can also praise Him with more than singing. We can praise Him with dancing or playing instruments. (Psalm 149:3; Psalm 150:3-4) When it comes to praise, God rejoices over you! "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will comfort you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

                Why would we not praise God? Why would we not worship Him? Why would we ever let what others think of us stop us from loving the Lord? What is Jesus was too afraid of what others thought to die on the cross for us? What if He decided not to die on the cross because someone wouldn't like Him or would laugh at Him? Well, you would have no reason to praise and worship; but He did, so you have every reason to praise and worship! So do not let a moment go by where you do not praise and worship the Lord, because that is a moment you cannot get back. Do not be ashamed, let your praises ring! Lift them up to God and let the beautiful sound bless the Lord!


                                                                                                                                         -D

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