Hallelujah! Praise God in HIs Sanctuary.  Praise Him in His mighty heavens.  Praise Him for His powerful acts; praise Him for His abundant greatness.  Praise Him with trumpet blast;  praise Him with harp and lyre.  Praise Him with tambourine and dance; praise Him with flute and strings.  Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with clashing cymbals.  Let everything that breathes Praise the Lord!  Hallelujah!  Psalm 150:1-6  HCSB

What a beautiful conclusion to the Psalms.  David concludes the Psalms by urging everyone and everything to praise the Lord.  Jesus told His disciples that the greatest commandment (Matthew 25:35-40 and Mark 12:28-34) is that we love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind.  In other words, we give God our all.  In order to love God with this kind of passion, we must continually praise Him.

Now human nature tells us that we love those that do what we want when we want and are good to us.  It should be easy for us to love God because He is always good to us and always does what is best for us.  However, during periods of trial and testing, it is easy for us to become discouraged.  It is easy for us to sink into a pity party and think that God is being too hard on us or God is allowing these trials and tribulations to come into our lives.  God does not tempt us (James 1:13) but He does allow us to go through periods of testing in order to make us stronger.  He allows us to go through periods of testing in order to know our hearts.  He wants to know if we will cave in or push through (Deuteronomy 8:2).  We build physical strength by doing resistance training, right?  Well, we build spiritual strength in the same way, with resistance training or trials and tribulations.

We should continually praise God and here’s why.  First of all praising God keeps us focused on Him and we know that when we keep our focus on Him several  things happen.  The first thing is that we tend to stay out of trouble because we are focused on Him and not what is going on in the world (2 Timothy 2:4).  Another advantage to constantly praising God is that it strengthens us to stand strong in times of trouble (Ephesians 6).  When we are occupying ourselves with doing God’s work, God takes care of all of our needs (Matthew 6:33). This is why even in bad times we still need to praise God.  We know from Romans 8:28 that “all things work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose”.  Satan tries to distract us from focusing on God and praising God, don’t fall prey to his evil schemes.

In Revelation 19:1-21 it speaks of the great multitude of voices praising God.  We will be praising God in heaven.  Wouldn’t it be good for you to start practicing while you are here on earth?

I don’t know about you, but when times get bad and the devil tempts me to get angry at God, I have to stop and think of all the trials that God has brought me through.  I have to stop and think about how good He has been to me.  I have to recall the difficult times that I have come through only to find out later that God was doing what was best for me, even if I didn’t understand it at the time.

God is good always.  He’s always got our back.  When we make a mess of things, He can turn it into our message.  Our tests can become our testimony.  God is truly working all things for the good of those of us who love Him and are doing His work here on earth.  I pray that you understand that giving God glory, honor, and praise doesn’t only honor God, but we are rewarded with peace and joy.  We are brought closer into our relationship with our Lord and Savior.  So, today, no matter what you are going through, give it to God.  Along with it give him all the glory, honor and praise.  Know that whatever problem you face it is not bigger than the God you serve.

Praise God for His abundant mercy and grace.  Praise God for a love so strong that he sent His son to die for our sins (John 3:16).  No matter what is going wrong in our lives, we can still find many reasons to praise God.  So if your praise fuel is running low, read today’s scripture passage and remember to praise Him.

Have a great day!