Trusting God in the Midst of Suffering: The Purpose of Praise

 

Your loyal followers trust in you, for you, LORD, do not abandon those who seek your help. Psalm 9:10

 Do you ever come to God with a request, secretly wondering in your heart if He can or will fulfill it? I think David and the other psalmists definitely felt this way, so you are not alone. You see over and over in the psalms where they remind God of His promises and essentially call Him out, saying “Surely You won’t fail us!” But as they wrote these words to God, they were writing them for themselves as well. They were telling themselves, “Of course God will not let us down. He never has and He never will!” Oftentimes we need to be reminded of this truth, and what better way than by praising God for all He has done.

 We can “know” that God is good and mighty to save, but when we focus on our problems, it’s easy to forget that. Here the psalmist encourages us to trust in God’s promises and truth, knowing that He will not leave us to shame. Over and over this is promised in scripture. Deuteronomy 31:6 tells us, “Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the LORD your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!" Hebrews 13:5 reminds, “Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.’” And Isaiah 41:10 adds, “Don't be afraid, for I am with you! Don't be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you - yes, I help you - yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!” Earlier in this study we looked at Romans chapter 8 in which verses 38-39 read, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 When we face big challenges in our life, we have the opportunity to test our belief in God’s Word, in the promises He has given us. Do we truly believe that God will never leave us? Can we stand secure in the knowledge that nothing can pluck us out of God’s hand? If we do, how do we show it? Through worship. You don’t have to wait for God’s deliverance; you can praise Him like He’s already done it. There are a couple of songs that have been on my heart this morning as I considered praising God in the midst of the storm. “Worship Through It” performed by Tasha Layton and Chris Brown proclaims, “I know my God can do it. I’m gonna worship through it. Before I see my breakthrough, I’m gonna choose to praise You.” Elevation Worship’s song “Praise” starts out chanting, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” and goes on to enumerate the many reasons we have to praise God in every season. What stands out to me about it this morning is the line, “I’ll praise when I feel it, praise when I don’t.” I don’t have to have lovey-dovey feelings in my heart to tell my husband I love him. I don’t have to feel good to praise God. Praise reminds us of who God is and what He has promised to us.

Here’s the Thing: Yes, I praise God when I’m happy and surrounded by goodness and grace. But that’s not the only time that God deserves our worship or that it is appropriate. Praising God is a blessing and a directive. God has commanded us to do this, not for His benefit, but for ours. Worship draws us closer to our Father, reminds us of His goodness and promises, and aligns our heart with truth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Hate Begets Hate

Image
 Well, this is a post I never thought I'd be writing! I'm going to start with the backstory, which I didn't get until we were pretty far into this but which I think will help it be clearer for you to understand.  Evidently my nephew who lives in Tennessee has been up to no good. For quite some time he's been driving around baiting people of other races (he's white) with terrible racial slurs and trying to get them to fight him, presumably so he'll feel justified in shooting them. Yeah, that's pretty awful! He's been posting his shenanigans on social media, and while Facebook took his videos down, X has left them up for everyone to see.  As you can imagine, this has caused quite the backlash. People who are offended by his behavior and those that support it, have grouped together and continued the hurt and violence. The group in opposition to him decided that it would benefit them to post his family's names, phone numbers, and addresses on the interne...
Read more

Praying God's Wisdom: When Forgiveness is for Your Healing

Image
  As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12  Last month I wrote a post that will likely never see the light of day. You see, someone did great harm to one of my close loved ones, and to me by extension, and I was writing about the impact it had on me, the collateral damage I had become. But, of course, that initial hurt was done to someone other than me, and it is not my story to tell. The thing is, within that, I still have a story. I still have an injury. The trauma is real, but it is not mine to share, so how do I deal with it?   I guess I defaulted to my old ways of dealing with it initially and just stuffed it down. That does no one any good. Our verse today shares the incomprehensible blessing of God’s forgiveness for us and reminds me that He has called me to forgive as well. Forgiveness is crucial in relationships because whenever two or more humans get together, someone will mess up. But what role does...
Read more

Am I Pretty?

Image
How I look has changed a lot over the last year. Just under a year ago my head was shaved for brain surgery and over the last year my hair has been growing out. I’ve had to do a lot more resting and less exercise and activity so I’ve put on weight. I had arm surgery a couple of months ago which left me with a splint for most of that time and now an arm with 13 scars on it. I look so different. A big part of me has worried so much about how my husband sees me. Does he still find me attractive? You see, he’s not one to voice things like that. Words of affirmation were not used in his home growing up and they are not a part of his standard vocabulary. It’s funny though, as I read today’s verses I realized that he has, in fact, been telling me I’m pretty, just in a different way. Let your beauty not be external - the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes - but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in Go...
Read more