Have...

...you ever met someone who is part of everything you wanted to be part of and everything you wanted to be?

Have you ever wished for a life less ordinary?

Have you ever endured a frustration that you can do nothing to change?

This is one of those things that will work out in time.

Wishing life on a desert island was an option.

Why?

This is just an exploration for my spirit. I’m in the midst of writing a song of which the chorus presently goes like this:

‘O Lord,

We come to you,

With praises on our hearts,

Praises on our hearts.’

And abstractly, I think that to write a full song about the praises of God that come from my heart I need to understand just why it is that I praise God.

So that leads me to the question, why do we praise someone/thing?

When would it be appropriate to praise a child or loved one?

Why on earth would we praise God?

Because of all that he’s done, all that is doing and all that he will do. Because he is the same yesterday, today and forever. Because he sent his son, he sent love for me and the entirety of humanity.

Why do you go on a Sunday morning to sing songs to God? How do you determine whether or not someone is worthy of praise?

I talk about someone/thing - I mean God.

Surely, as the people of God…or any monarch, principality or power, we should praise that which we declare is sovereign over us?

So it would then be fair so put as point 1, that we praise God because it is our duty. It is our privilege through rain or shine to lift up our ruler. Our provider.

God is the creator of all things. I think it ties in with point 1, with God being sovereign, I think that we praise God because that is what he made us for. And in my mind there is no greater act for the collective body of God to do than to come together and raise their voices and spirits in agreement, lifting up the name of God.

 

Back to the root question, Why praise God?

Why would you come to God with praise? I think as much as anything else that we say to God, he hears our praises. Just as Matt Redman wrote in the song Blessed Be Your Name, ‘You give and take away, you give and take away, but still my heart will say, Lord, Blessed be your name’.

Because the praises and prayers (which I think go hand in hand) mixed with faith moves God. I think that when his people respond earnestly both individually and corporately, then God hears that. God will hear the one heartfelt, whisper of a cry amongst a barrage of clanging cymbals.

God is the same yesterday and forever. As is all that he has done for us. Those saved and unsaved. His mercies endure forever.

 

Which leads me to ask, what exactly is it that God has done for me?

I guess I’ll tackle the biblical things first.

God has given me salvation – a term which I think perhaps used rather carelessly these days and a topic which is seemingly larger than I at first may have estimated.

Salvation as I understand it is the ballpark are of what Jesus has done for me. Well ok, let me refine that…it is what is given to me through what Jesus has done for me. It is the gift of eternal life and right-standing with God the Father.

And through salvation, I have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that lives in Christ, lives in me. The Holy Spirit is an immense tool and resource that as a Christian I have access to. With the Spirit of God comes power, healing (all sorts of healing – both physical and emotional), creativity, dreams & visions, insight into the word of God and so much more.

Isaiah 53 speaks of what the death of the saviour of the world will do hundreds and hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. One particular part of the passage I want to focus in on is that which says ‘…and by his stripes, we are healed…’. I believe this applies to both emotional and physical healing. The stripes of Christ, the wounds he suffered which were rightfully mine, break the back of the sin and pain that I may feel or endure.