INTIMACY WITH GOD THROUGH PRAISE
Psalms 7:17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of this righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
It is a good thing to praise the Lord. It certainly blesses the Lord, but it is good for us too. When we praise the Lord we draw close to him. We give him our full attention, and in turn his attention and presence begins to fill us and we have a intimate time of fellowship. Our spirit begins to commune with his Spirit. His wonderful love for us begins to well up inside us, and even our surroundings seem to be lost in the moment. All of our worries and concerns that weighed us down even as we knelt in prayer seem to be forgotten. The peace of God comes to us and it passes all understanding.
How could such a simple thing change us and the moment that we are in so much? There is no logical explanation to it except that God has entered time and space to come have a personal intimate visit with us. Why should Almighty God do such a wonderful thing to someone so undeserving as we are? Why should the one that spoke all things in existence be so personal to us? The answer us he loves us!
Our praise is the act of faith that opens the opportunity for God to be so intimate with us. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and faith is putting into action our free will to demonstrate what we say we believe. If we really believe God is a wonderful God to us, we need to tell him! If we want an intimate, loving relationship with God then we need to reveal it. Praise is not a hard thing to do at all. Even children can do it, and they can do it very well. It is a matter of opening our heart and expressing the thankfulness, love appreciation and adoration we have for the Lord. There is so much all around us to praise him for.
The only reason we don’t it is that it is not a priority! We need to make praising the Lord a real priority in our life. We need to do it all day long. We need to do it when we wake up in the night. We need to do it until it becomes natural for us as breathing. Psalms 22:3 tells us that God is enthroned on the praises of Israel, or as some translations say it, “God inhabits the praises of his people.”
Would you like this for your life? Then all you have to do is to praise the Lord!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help us to praise the Lord. You are a wonderful God, and we ask that you help us in Jesus’ name.
