Thursday, December 8, 2011

Give Thanks To The Lord



This is part of a song that I wrote, with the Lord’s help, a while ago, it goes like this, “Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness, give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness.  Let the whole world know what He has done give thanks to the Lord everyone.”  I believe that every believer should tell the world what the Lord has done for them and also thank the Lord for it.  I love it when the Lord speaks words in my mind and I am able to write a praise song.  The Word says this in Psalms 98:1, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song!  For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.”

There are many praise songs that you can sing but writing your own praise song is very special because it comes from your heart.  It expresses what you feel about the Lord; your gratitude, thankfulness and love.  Nobody else can express these things quite like you can because we have all been created differently and we have all been through different circumstances and situations.  

Think about this, sometimes when we sing someone else's songs we run into a problem because we are not being completely truthful, we may not want to lie purposely but we don’t always think about the words we are singing and some of them may not be true for us at the time.  I find that when I am praising the Lord in church I have to change the words of some songs I am singing at times because they aren’t true for me at that particular time.  The words may be true for the person that wrote the song but not for me.  I challenge you the next time you are singing praise songs in church, or anywhere, to really think about the words you are singing and see for yourself if what I am saying is true or not.  

When you write your own songs you can sing them with assurance that what you are singing is the truth for you.  I have had some people get angry at me for saying these things but I have had others agree with me when they put what I have said to the test.  Many times we just sing and we are not even aware of the words we are singing because we are distracted by what is going on around us.  Let me encourage you the next time you are praising the Lord close your eyes and block out everything that is going on around you and just focus all your attention on the Lord and what you are singing.  Remember when you praise the Lord it should be all about Him, about who He is and what He is and not about us.  When we thank the Lord it should be about what He has done and what He is going to do.  Can you do both, sure you can and that will bring Him pleasure.  I am in no way telling you what to do or even how you should praise just giving you a tidbit you might use that I hope will help you.

God inhabits the praise of His people which means to me that He loves it when we praise Him.  Praising and thanking God are very important, not only do they please Him but they also help us.  I really like the way this was said in my Billy Graham Study Bible in the footnotes and I want to share it with you.  “When you are thankful to God your faith deepens.  You become an example and inspiration to those around you, and you become more like Christ.  A heart of praise and thankfulness is a great deterrent to sin in your life.  Praising God leads you to a greater awareness of who He is and His goodness to you.  When your heart is full of genuine thanks and praise, you are unable to hang onto sinful attitudes, such as jealousy, bitterness or resentment.  When you focus on God and who He is and what He has done for you, your perspective necessarily changes.”  I couldn’t have said it better.  

So give the Lord some praise today and don’t forget to thank Him for all He has accomplished in your life.  I will leave you with this ~ Philippians 4:4-9, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”  

Have a great day and God bless you!!            

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