Friday, May 18, 2012

Praise Him Like Never Before

I stayed up way too late tonight watching a movie with my husband.  I fell asleep and really missed the best parts of the movie.  Upon waking I had some thoughts going through my mind.  Lately I have spent much time in prayer over things that concern me and even frighten me.  I have started out with faith over these things, but my faith just seemed to lose steam long before finding victory or even a hint of victory in those areas.  It seemed like the hope I had would be lost to the fear and exhausted state that I would find myself in.  This seems to be an endless cycle.  I have been talking to the Lord about many of the things in my life that need to change.  Waking up tonight I realize that I have not been living in the victorious way I should be because I have been trying to fight this battle in my own strength, although not intentionally.  However, I have not been intentional about not fighting in my own strength either. 

There are a few of reasons for this I believe.  The first one is that I stopped believing the Lord even cared about my family or about me.  The second is that I have let my mind become undisciplined and allowed my emotions to rule my thinking (may be another post topic for another day).  Another reason is that I have not been sure how to be intentional in this area either.  Tonight I woke up and the thought going through my head is Praise the Lord like you never have before.  Praise Him as if your life depends on it.  Praise Him like this is your last breathe and you want to make sure that last breathe is telling Him how much you love and adore Him. 

As I think about this there is a lot of truth to this and it may even be one of the pieces missing to finding victory in some areas of life.  A few reasons come to mind for this as well.  First of all the Lord loves my family and me more than I could ever even comprehend and praising him reminds me of that.  Second of all it is impossible to worry or be concerned and Praise the Lord at the same time.  When we praise him we look at his bigness and see that nothing in all of existence is bigger than our Creator and Savior.  Thirdly, it disciplines our minds and tells our emotions to get in line.  Another thing it does is cause us to be intentional with our lives.  Finally, Scripture tells us that the Lord inhabits the praise of his people.  So if HE inhabits our praises then HE is right there with us giving us all the strength we need, He is right there fighting the spiritual battles that need to be fought, and He is right there guiding the way we need to go.

So my thought before going to bed tonight is that I want to take time every day to Praise the Lord like never before because I need HIM like never before and in many ways my life does depend on it.

1 comment:

  1. Reminds me of the song by Casting Crowns, "Praise You in This Storm." I love that song. It has such truth in it... Lord, I will praise You in this storm, I will lift my hands, You are who You are... Though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

    ReplyDelete