Living to praise Him.

One of the most difficult yet powerful things we’ll ever learn is to praise God no matter what we go through. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that we tend to “rob” God of His glory; not that we could ever steal His glory from him, but we don’t praise Him enough. I’ve been analyzing my life in light of how much I actually praise God on a daily basis. What I found is that I usually praise Him with all of my heart when things are good and the world looks bright from my perspective, but is this how it should be? Does God deserve our praise only when we feel like praising Him or does He deserve it all the time? God is God in every season of our lives and He deserves our praise! Always. Just the simple fact that He is God is such a reason to praise Him! We need to be intentional about praising God often, even in those moments when we don’t really feel like praising Him. When we choose not to praise Him, our actions are actually saying that He is not worthy of our praise at that specific moment in our lives because He is less than God in our eyes. How sinful that is! Praising God only when things go my way proves to me that I somehow think I have full control over my life and that things need to be done according to my own plans. I am God. You know what me being in control would literally mean? Chaos! I so know that I’m not capable of being in control of my life and that even my “best” plans come nowhere close to God’s wisdom and understanding! We need to reevaluate the way we see ourselves in comparison to God. You’ll be surprised how much this really shapes your relationship with God! True praise flows from a heart that truly understands who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. When we allow Him to take over and it’s no longer about us, we can’t help but praise Him! Oh, how worthy He is of our praise! Every moment of every day…even when things aren’t going according to our expectations! My prayer is that we will turn our eyes upon Jesus. We have so many reasons to praise Him! So many!!! Praise Him in the morning, praise Him all throughout your day, praise Him at night, praise Him even as you drift to sleep because He is worthy! As we praise God with all of our heart, we join in with the heavenly beings who never cease singing His praises! Worship opens the gates of heaven and makes us one with our Creator. We need to dedicate time to simply praise God during our day! It’s because we haven’t been truly worshipping Him that we have become so self-absorbed. We are not God, He is! May we exalt Him and not ourselves!