Post by Cindy on Nov 25, 2015 11:27:56 GMT -5
When we're going through a really hard time, generally the last thing we feel like doing is praising God, and yet we're told constantly that we should be doing just that in scriptures such as: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2–4) and many more. I've found for myself that no matter how I feel at the moment, once I begin to praise the Lord, He lifts me up and restores my joy and strengthens my faith. You know, it's really amazing because generally when we praise someone, they'll simply accept it and maybe thank us. Not our Father though. When we praise Him, He turns around and blesses us! I don't think there's anyone who doesn't need their hope and joy restored, and their faith and perseverance strengthened, do you?
The problem many of us have when we decide to praise Him like we're told to, is we lack the words to do so. I know I've told you all before that one way around this is to simply praise Him with the Psalms, as there are many that are perfect for doing just that during a trial. You might like to try something I did with Psalm 136 which turned it into a favorite of mine. I started adding my own personalized praises to the psalm next to each of the verses. What I did was next to each verse I wrote my own verses of praise to God, at first following the same pattern as the psalm itself. For example, the first verse says: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1) One of the things I wrote by that verse was: I give thanks to You Lord for You make me good, where there was nothing good before. Your love endures forever! I continued on with about 6 similar verses all ending the same way. The format changes in verse 4 and says: “to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:4) There, I wrote things like: To You alone who's gift & call are irrevocable, Your love endures forever! To You who predestined, called, & justified us, Your love endures forever! etc. When it changed again here: “to him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:16) I added things like: To the Lord who made a way where there was no way when we were in desperate need & got us a very good car! His love endures forever! (this was a more recent addition) and continued following the pattern with my own praises throughout the psalm.
I recently also found some more wonderful ways to praise Him, in one of my books. This particular book is a book of prayers for all occasions. I'd never bothered to read it because I didn't think I needed it. But one day I noticed an excerpt from it in my bible library that was a prayer of praise, and that got me hooked! His prayers of praise are just wonderful so I'd like to share them with you so that you can turn to them when you feel at a loss for words. There are approximately 15 of them in the book and they're all priceless. I'll post a few here and then some more in my next post. Once I read the praises in this book though, I knew I had to include them in my praises too. So I copied them next to some of the verses in the psalm. the only change I made was adding, "Your love endures forever!" after each sentence. Now when I praise the Lord, I have my own personalized psalm as well as the real psalm 136, and these awesome praises from this book that I personalized as well. Since I'd been writing praises by the verses in this psalm for a long time already, by the time I added the ones from this book, each verse now has enough praises by it that could easily be an entire psalm by itself! I guess I'm going to have to find another psalm of praise to personalize next as there's no room left in this one. Maybe I'll go to another favorite one, Psalm 103 next. (by the way, Psalm 103 is another great Psalm to use as praise when going through a trial.)
I'm sharing this in hopes that it will help you be creative with your praise to God. God tells us to "remember what He's done for us" and to share it with others too. By writing them by these verses in my bible, so I could praise Him with them whenever I wanted to, it helps me remember the many many ways in which the Lord has helped me through my life. If you don't have a computer bible program that you can add notes to, you obviously can't add things like this next to verses in a regular bible, but what you can do is copy the Psalm onto paper or if you prefer, a Word document, and then add your praises to it that way.
Before someone asks, let me assure you that this is not "adding to or subtracting from, His Word". We are not teaching others to believe what we've written etc. All we're doing is praising Him for what He's done in our lives and writing it next to other psalms of praise to give us ideas for our own praises. So praise the Lord and enjoy being His child!
The Fingerprints of God
Lord, we praise you for the privilege of walking with Christ and bearing his name; for the joy that he has brought into our lives and the new sense of purpose we feel; for the meaning and direction he has given to our lives; for the peace, courage, and faith that he gives; for the laughter and love with which he has touched our days; and for the love that reaches out to fill us and transform our witness and worship and praise.
We praise you for Jesus and for the way he changes our lives.
We praise you that Jesus’ story is true.
We praise you that it is not simply a story of events in the past but an experience of newness and renewal available to us through the Holy Spirit.
We praise you for those moments when the Spirit opens our eyes to the fingerprints of God in creation and our ears to his word in the Bible and to his voice in the presence of a friend.
We praise you for those times when we have known the touch of his love and have been used as channels of his caring. We praise you for the knowledge that his forgiveness has lifted our burden of guilt, his light has broken through our darkness, and his love is making us whole.
We praise you in the name of Christ, the one who makes all things new. Amen.
Extravagant Love
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we praise you for your extravagant love that gives us hope, joy, and courage.
We praise you for your love that never lets us off, never lets us down, and never lets us go.
We praise you for your sovereignty and your holiness and that they are saturated in love.
We praise you for dealing with our fears, touching our lives, and healing our brokenness.
We praise you that in your wisdom and grace you did not leave us to try to find you in our own strength or to doubt the reality of your loving-kindness and mercy.
We praise you for always being there when we needed you most, for being there when we least expected it, for being with us when no one else could be there and no one else wanted to be there.
We praise you that every time we look to Christ we are reminded there is nothing he does not know about us and nothing he does not understand about our lives.
We praise you that you come to us again and again.
You lift us when we are down and hold us when we are hurting; you fill us with your grace and share all the twists and turns of our lives.
Mighty God, wonderful Savior, living Lord, by your Holy Spirit enable us to give you the praise and glory you deserve. May the song we have begun ring out through all the world and to the end of time. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Greatness, Our Smallness
Lord, you do not change; you are always there, and you always will be.
We praise you for your greatness, which holds our smallness; for your majesty, which was once clothed with our humanity; for your sovereignty, which embraces our frailty; for your holiness, which exposes our sinfulness; for your wholeness, which heals our brokenness; for your glory, which fills our emptiness; for your love, which gives us life; for your Son, who claims us for his own; for your Spirit, who empowers us for worship, witness, and service.
Lord of all time and space and all things, we praise you that in Christ you came and shared all that life means to us so that we, by your grace, might enter into all that heaven is with you.
We have come to praise you for the coming of Christ our Savior and the Savior of the world.
In his name. Amen.
Clowes, D. (2007). Let us pray: 120 prayers for all occasions.
The problem many of us have when we decide to praise Him like we're told to, is we lack the words to do so. I know I've told you all before that one way around this is to simply praise Him with the Psalms, as there are many that are perfect for doing just that during a trial. You might like to try something I did with Psalm 136 which turned it into a favorite of mine. I started adding my own personalized praises to the psalm next to each of the verses. What I did was next to each verse I wrote my own verses of praise to God, at first following the same pattern as the psalm itself. For example, the first verse says: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1) One of the things I wrote by that verse was: I give thanks to You Lord for You make me good, where there was nothing good before. Your love endures forever! I continued on with about 6 similar verses all ending the same way. The format changes in verse 4 and says: “to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:4) There, I wrote things like: To You alone who's gift & call are irrevocable, Your love endures forever! To You who predestined, called, & justified us, Your love endures forever! etc. When it changed again here: “to him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:16) I added things like: To the Lord who made a way where there was no way when we were in desperate need & got us a very good car! His love endures forever! (this was a more recent addition) and continued following the pattern with my own praises throughout the psalm.
I recently also found some more wonderful ways to praise Him, in one of my books. This particular book is a book of prayers for all occasions. I'd never bothered to read it because I didn't think I needed it. But one day I noticed an excerpt from it in my bible library that was a prayer of praise, and that got me hooked! His prayers of praise are just wonderful so I'd like to share them with you so that you can turn to them when you feel at a loss for words. There are approximately 15 of them in the book and they're all priceless. I'll post a few here and then some more in my next post. Once I read the praises in this book though, I knew I had to include them in my praises too. So I copied them next to some of the verses in the psalm. the only change I made was adding, "Your love endures forever!" after each sentence. Now when I praise the Lord, I have my own personalized psalm as well as the real psalm 136, and these awesome praises from this book that I personalized as well. Since I'd been writing praises by the verses in this psalm for a long time already, by the time I added the ones from this book, each verse now has enough praises by it that could easily be an entire psalm by itself! I guess I'm going to have to find another psalm of praise to personalize next as there's no room left in this one. Maybe I'll go to another favorite one, Psalm 103 next. (by the way, Psalm 103 is another great Psalm to use as praise when going through a trial.)
I'm sharing this in hopes that it will help you be creative with your praise to God. God tells us to "remember what He's done for us" and to share it with others too. By writing them by these verses in my bible, so I could praise Him with them whenever I wanted to, it helps me remember the many many ways in which the Lord has helped me through my life. If you don't have a computer bible program that you can add notes to, you obviously can't add things like this next to verses in a regular bible, but what you can do is copy the Psalm onto paper or if you prefer, a Word document, and then add your praises to it that way.
Before someone asks, let me assure you that this is not "adding to or subtracting from, His Word". We are not teaching others to believe what we've written etc. All we're doing is praising Him for what He's done in our lives and writing it next to other psalms of praise to give us ideas for our own praises. So praise the Lord and enjoy being His child!
The Fingerprints of God
Lord, we praise you for the privilege of walking with Christ and bearing his name; for the joy that he has brought into our lives and the new sense of purpose we feel; for the meaning and direction he has given to our lives; for the peace, courage, and faith that he gives; for the laughter and love with which he has touched our days; and for the love that reaches out to fill us and transform our witness and worship and praise.
We praise you for Jesus and for the way he changes our lives.
We praise you that Jesus’ story is true.
We praise you that it is not simply a story of events in the past but an experience of newness and renewal available to us through the Holy Spirit.
We praise you for those moments when the Spirit opens our eyes to the fingerprints of God in creation and our ears to his word in the Bible and to his voice in the presence of a friend.
We praise you for those times when we have known the touch of his love and have been used as channels of his caring. We praise you for the knowledge that his forgiveness has lifted our burden of guilt, his light has broken through our darkness, and his love is making us whole.
We praise you in the name of Christ, the one who makes all things new. Amen.
Extravagant Love
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we praise you for your extravagant love that gives us hope, joy, and courage.
We praise you for your love that never lets us off, never lets us down, and never lets us go.
We praise you for your sovereignty and your holiness and that they are saturated in love.
We praise you for dealing with our fears, touching our lives, and healing our brokenness.
We praise you that in your wisdom and grace you did not leave us to try to find you in our own strength or to doubt the reality of your loving-kindness and mercy.
We praise you for always being there when we needed you most, for being there when we least expected it, for being with us when no one else could be there and no one else wanted to be there.
We praise you that every time we look to Christ we are reminded there is nothing he does not know about us and nothing he does not understand about our lives.
We praise you that you come to us again and again.
You lift us when we are down and hold us when we are hurting; you fill us with your grace and share all the twists and turns of our lives.
Mighty God, wonderful Savior, living Lord, by your Holy Spirit enable us to give you the praise and glory you deserve. May the song we have begun ring out through all the world and to the end of time. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Greatness, Our Smallness
Lord, you do not change; you are always there, and you always will be.
We praise you for your greatness, which holds our smallness; for your majesty, which was once clothed with our humanity; for your sovereignty, which embraces our frailty; for your holiness, which exposes our sinfulness; for your wholeness, which heals our brokenness; for your glory, which fills our emptiness; for your love, which gives us life; for your Son, who claims us for his own; for your Spirit, who empowers us for worship, witness, and service.
Lord of all time and space and all things, we praise you that in Christ you came and shared all that life means to us so that we, by your grace, might enter into all that heaven is with you.
We have come to praise you for the coming of Christ our Savior and the Savior of the world.
In his name. Amen.
Clowes, D. (2007). Let us pray: 120 prayers for all occasions.
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