The Sacrifice of Praise

My Bible Study leader asked me to write about what this phrase meant to me.  So here goes.  I hope there's something helpful in here for you.  :)

After reading it I was reminded that even Jesus had to get away from the clutter and chaos of His day to day life.  If you are feeling unable to function where you are, maybe a bit of change is just what you need.  Twice I remember being so unable to focus, so distraught that my Hubby took my arm and we just went for a short drive.  It was like it shocked me out of the "bad" place I was in for a little while and made things go back to the proper perspective.

All my spinning thoughts couldn't get me out of the hole of despair that I was in . . .it took someone else caring enough to boot me out of my bedroom and into the land of the living.

If you don't have someone like that, take the first step towards finding someone.  Google an online support group.  Call a suicide hotline if you are really in crisis.

Reach out to NAMI or a church in your community.

And be well.

Love,

~ Jenn

The

HOW

WHEN 

WHERE

and

WHY of making the “Sacrifice of Praise” personal.

If praise was always easy, always natural, the words “sacrifice of praise” wouldn’t be in the Scripture.  

Sacrifice implies giving up something important.  It sometimes hurts to give up what we value the most.

So you could say that sometimes sacrifice equals pain. 

I think that before you can make the “sacrifice of praise” personal, you have to identify the most important thing in your life . . . the thing that perhaps God has allowed to be taken from you.  Maybe, if you are a better person than I am, you are glad to give up the things that you hold dearest to you . . .me, I'm not quite there yet.

I think that if you’d asked me what the most important thing in my life was ten years ago I would have said it was God first, then my husband and my babies.  

I never dreamed that there was something else that was so important that I took it completely for granted:  my sanity.

I lost it for awhile.  It was horrible.  And when I got my brain back, I discovered that I’d lost some of my faith and ability to trust God as well.   In a sense, it felt exactly as if I’d lost God.  I didn’t “lose” Him, but it felt that way.  So I had to decide that He was real again, and after I decided that He was real I had to decide that He was, indeed, the good God that He said He was. Praising Him had been natural prior to my breakdown but it sure wasn’t anymore.  Praising God became a sacrifice because every time I chose to approach God I was making myself vulnerable again.  I was saying “I trust You.  Even though You allowed me to lose my sanity for a bit, I trust you.”

The HOW of praise.

So for me, praise comes deliberately.  It comes on the days when I choose to turn my face towards God.  I turn my face towards God in a variety of ways:  Bible reading, journal, prayer-walking, singing and listening to Praise and Worship  music.

The WHEN of praise.

Ideally, praise happens first thing in the morning.  That’s when I like to grab my notebook, Bible, study book and a cup of coffee.  I start my timer and I try as hard as I can to get some time in with God before I’m interrupted.  But praise also occurs during the daytime when I find myself thanking God for something good in my life, when I am caught off guard by the beauty in the world around me . . .when I remember, again, how fortunate I am for things such as the breath in my lungs, the strength in my legs as I walk, and the joy in my baby’s hearty laughter.  I’ll be honest.  There are times when I can’t praise.  I am too angry or too upset.  That’s when I have to get out of that situation:  eat something because I haven't eat yet that day, leave the house, go somewhere peaceful and beautiful.  And then I can be alone with God and reflect on His goodness.  When I start to be able to think clearly, away from the clutter and chaos, that’s when my heart can really praise God properly.

The WHERE of praise

Praise happens wherever a Christian is, if he/she is living for God.  Much of my praise happens right at my kitchen table because that is where I do my devotions.  That’s where my notebook sits open and I take the time to jot down random “God” thoughts throughout the day.  It also happens in the car, when I point out something especially unique and wonderful about our surroundings, or a memory we have of other times, places and people.  We need to remember that “every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights . . .”  ( James 1:17)  And of course it happens at church when my Christian brothers and sisters raise their voices together to praise their God.

The WHY  of praise

We were created to praise.  That’s the why of praise.  Yes, God loves it. But part of the reason He loves it is because praise does something wonderful for us.  It takes our minds off of our problems.  When we’re  praising God, we aren’t thinking about our problems.  When we’re praising God we aren’t thinking about how we’re all that and a basket of fries.  God wants us to praise Him for our own good.  He wants us to revel in the peace it brings us when we acknowledge that He’s in charge and that we know that He’s got us in His hands and nothing can snatch us away . . .

Praise is my gift to God, but it’s His gift to me, too.