Thanking and Praising

We hear a lot about your prayer life today but what about your praise life?  I have never found it real hard to thank and praise the Lord because I know what I have been set free of.  I have a testimony that I am ashamed of and I know somewhat of how far I have fallen. The words of a song that just popped into my mind fit me very well, “He took me out of the miry clay and He put my feet on a rock to stay, He put a song in my soul today a song of praise, Hallelujah.”  

I know every believer is in a fight for their lives and sometimes they can seem overwhelmed with their circumstances that maybe they don’t feel like thanking and praising the Lord, but that is when we need to make a choice to give the Lord a sacrifice of praise.  If we only thank and praise the Lord when we feel like it, it may not happen very often.  The way I feel is the Lord is worthy of my thanks and praise regardless of how I feel or what is going on in my life.

Think about this, the Lord is faithful to us even if we are not faithful and He still loves us even when we are unloving and He never leaves us, even when we stray from Him because He loves us unconditionally.  This means the Lord doesn’t love us by how we perform or what He can receive from us, like many people do, He loves us for who we are, His creation.  Remember this, the Lord gave His life for us when we were His enemies and still made a way that we could be made right with Him. He laid down His life for us, no one took it from Him, He had a choice and the choice He made was to suffer and die a cruel, painful death because His love for us compelled Him to do it.

No matter who you are or what your circumstance or situation, when the Lord came into your life and saved you it should have been enough for you to have a heart of thanksgiving and praise unto the Lord even if He never does another thing for you.  Think of it this way, you had a death sentence on your life and you were headed straight to a place of fire, forever separated from the Lord where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, that should be enough to get you into the thanking and praising mood.

It seems to me that people think one sin has a different consequence than another so if someone only told a few lies and another was a terrorist, their punishment would be different if neither was forgiven.  In my Bible it says this in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

And it also says this in verses 9-20:

“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.”

“Their throat is an open tomb;

With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“The poison of asps is under their lips”;

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

Destruction and misery are in their ways;

And the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

In Revelations 20:11-15 it says this about the final judgment, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”       

                                                         

So each person that hasn’t been born-again will receive the same consequence in the end.  This should excite your heart if you have been born-again and snatched from the fires of Hell that awaited you and you should be thanking and praising the Lord, like I am right now.  

I hope this has been a wakeup call to all the believers and a heads up for all the non- believers that read this Tidbit.  If this doesn’t encourage the believer to thank and praise the Lord, I don’t know what will and for the non-believer I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sins and you will turn from your sins, in humble repentance, and receive the Lord by faith, receiving Him as your Lord and Savior, then if you are sincere you will be thanking and praising the Lord also.  Something to think about!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!