Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
Psalm 145:2 KJV
I have always enjoyed worship. There is something uplifting about
coming together with God’s people to worship the Lord. We know he is worthy of
all our praise. We can never worship him enough for all he has done. I love to sing of his Amazing Grace and How Great
is Our God. Our worship services are filled
with songs, old and new that speak of our wonderful Savior. I appreciate these times. People are uplifted, miracles can be seen, and lives are changed. This is a wonderful part of any service and ushers in the presence God.
But God reminds me often that we cannot think that praise and
worship is just a part of a service at church and does not apply every single moment
of every day. Our entire being is only here by
his Grace and every breath we breath is because of him. Every breath should be used
to praise Him.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:15 KJV
This verse uses the word, ‘continually.’ That tells us that praise
does not stop once the church worship team sits down. We have often fallen into the idea of compartmentalizing
services, and the rest of our days. We worship for the twenty or so minutes of a church service, feel good about it, and think what great worship we had this week,
but the Bible tells us to praise continually. The Bible does not define praise and
worship as just a part of a corporate service.
We are to be in a mindset of continually praise. It is to be our lifestyle. What does that mean?
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands
in thy name.
Psalm 63:4 KJV
While I live tells me that this is an every day, minute by minute
activity. My life should reflect continuous praise and worship in my words and actions.
I can sing my heart out on Sunday morning, but what about the rest of the week?
Do my words and actions speak praise?
I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew
forth all thy marvellous works.
Psalm 9:1 KJV
Each day, I have a choice and opportunity to show others who
God is. Do I share him by speaking in ways
that reflect Him or am I speaking complaints, gossip, iIl-will, etc? Do I treat others with the love of God or do
I act out of anger, frustration, or impatience? These questions apply to my home, my place of
work, and my comings and goings. Each moment
is an opportunity to praise my God. Each moment is an opportunity to share God with
someone. In our homes, we affect our testimony to our children and family members.
They need to see a consistent testimony. What we do daily will be our testimony
to our children more than what we do at a church service. How we treat coworkers,
customers and business dealings will speak louder than just saying that I’m a Christian. They will know you by your actions. You should
have a lifestyle of praise and worship. This
will be a greater testimony of God’s goodness than anything you could ever just
say.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Ephesians 5:19 KJV
You may wonder or think, this is impossible, especially, when
I am facing hard times. You may think that I cannot praise or worship during times
of loss, pain, worry, fear, etc. But these are the best times to choose to praise.
Our flesh will fail, but God never fails. He said he would never leave you nor forsake
you. In the middle of the trials, we can find that a lifestyle of praise and worship
will be more powerful than you can ever imagine. If, in the trial, you speak of
His goodness, you will be encouraging your own faith to grow. If, in the loss, you
magnify the Lord, He is your comfort. If, in the fear, you sing of His might, you
find that He did not give you a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind.
He is still there. Praise and worship will activate faith and set you up to see
his glory in operation. When I was young,
I would have dreams of something dark attacking me in my sleep. When I would finally
wake up, I learned that singing Jesus Loves Me would change my fear into
peace. I could go back sleep feeling his love around me. I have been able to apply
this in other situations as I have grown up and had to face the tough parts of life.
If I dwelt on the pain and despair, I would be overwhelmed by those thoughts and
feelings. If I turned to God in prayer, in praise and placed my trust in Him, my faith would rise. His Word would sustain me,
and He would bring me through. That has been
proven time and time again. My choice to praise Him through the storm, would change
how I saw the trial and how I came through it.
But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my
trouble.
Psalm 59:16 KJV
He will be our refuge and defense. We will be able to sing of
his power. This is the makings of powerful testimonies of His goodness. Praise and worship is powerful. Continual praise
and worship will change you from the inside out into a walking, talking testimony
of the powerful God you serve. Our daily lives should be a continuous praise
for God. We will be able to the ones that others will recognize as a child of God
and we can say as David did:
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man
that trusteth in him.
Psalm 34:8 KJV
Make a choice to praise Him, to worship Him, no matter the circumstances. David did this many times. He may have spoken of his weaknesses, concerns, and hurt, but he always returned to magnify the Lord.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Psalm 34:3 KJV
I
want my heart’s song to be praise. Praise will be my song and I will not be able
to contain it. May my life, my lifestyle, be a continual praise to my Lord.
