Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalms 100:1-5 (NIV)
Praise. God is so worthy of it from all His saints. Praise from His people is His due. He is God and we are the sheep of His pasture. Praise should flow freely and naturally from our lips. But what about when we have what we don’t want or want what we don’t have? It is easy to praise God when things are going swimmingly well, Amen? But our circumstances change and it’s not so easy, right? Our stories stink, our dreams delayed, our pain persists, our prayers do not seem to pierce heaven – do we still praise? It is easy to praise until we have a need yet that is exactly when we should praise – that is the “sacrifice of praise” and it is our weapon to fight with for contentment and wholeness. It gets our focus off our problems and on to our problem Solver and it is a decision. Remember, we can trust that He always has our best interest at heart even and especially in the hard. And He is conforming us into the image of His Son - whatever that takes.
Our Lord knows what we need. He is the Creator God, the One who made us, right? And because He made us, He knows what’s best for us and we can be confident that all His purposes are motived by His great love. No good thing does He withhold. And He alone knows what is good and pleasing and perfect for His children. We all want the peace that passes understanding to invade our lives which comes through praise - even if our experiences remain the same. It is the “even if” prayer of Shadrack Meshach and Abednego. It is not about our circumstances changing as much as it is about our hearts and our focus in our circumstances. As we place our eyes upon the Author and perfecter of our faith – with a firm knowledge that He always has our best interest at heart in all that He allows and that He withholds nothing good from those who love Him, we can rest secure in Him. He is transforming our hearts through our circumstances. His Hand blesses always whether it looks like a blessing or not.
The key to our joy is not in outward change – no matter how much we may believe it would be - rather it is in our joy and our sufficiency in Him as well as the peace that pervades our souls through our praise. This lifts us up to a higher and richer and joyful and peaceful plane knowing He is in control of all and He loves us with an everlasting love. If our circumstance do not change, He changes our hearts in the circumstances. Either way, all is well with a heart in the Hands of the Savior.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16 (NIV)