What Can Praise Do?

My wife and I went to church yesterday and there seemed to be a spirit of discouragement and, maybe, disillusion there.  It seemed like a spirit of heaviness was also there.  The electric had been turned off because of the water from the flooding but it was back on although there was still no gas for heat and it was cold.  Something our part of the world isn’t used to in church.  There were only a few people there when we walked in and it seemed like a very depressed place, out of the ordinary for this church that is normally very vibrant on Sunday morning.  Some of the people had been hit by the flood and lost some of their possessions as well as their hot water heaters and furnaces, but they were in church that morning to worship the Lord. 

My wife had called the pastor that morning to see if there would be any services and he said there would be a time of worship.  When we arrived, there were only three people in the praise band, and to be honest, it just wasn’t the same as when the whole praise band was there for a normal worship service.  We started to praise the Lord and I remember being very cold and I couldn’t get my hands to warm up and my wife had her coat on. If I remember right, when the worship time was over, there were two encouraging messages for the church and the pastor spoke some encouraging words, not a sermon because with all the circumstances going on with the flood he wasn’t prepared for one at the time.

Then one of the ladies gave a praise report followed by many other praises going up to the Lord from all over the church and the atmosphere seemed to change.  It seemed like life had been breathed into the church as the praises went up the blessings came down.  It seemed as though everyone was much more encouraged by the time the service was over, I wasn’t cold anymore and the spirit of heaviness was lifted, praise the Lord!  

I say quite often that God inhabits the praises of His people.  I feel like when the praises go up the presence of the Lord comes down.  I have said this before, I don’t take the fact that people lost many possessions lightly, no, this is not a trivial thing to me.  But in all reality what did most people lose?  Stuff, many things that have been around for years, many of the things haven’t been used for a long period of time.  Some of the things could have been sold to help their financial situation or to bless someone else.  

Believe me I am not just talking to you but I am talking to myself also because I am just as guilty as anyone else.  I am in the process of getting rid of stuff, cleaning out my cellar and other areas in my house.  If we really face the truth, we will realize that we have far too much stuff that we don’t need or use.  I don’t think the Lord is pleased with our hoarding and accumulating stuff and I think if you think about it, it shows a lack of faith on our part.  Why do we need faith if we have ten of everything we own?  I know that’s an exaggeration on my part but I think you get the point.  If we look at this positively, many can thank the Lord that they now have their cellar cleaned out.  I am not talking about the essentials that were lost.  Remember that this will pass, although I don’t think this is going to be a one time occurrence and in many cases it has happened before.  If you can, you need to get out of the flood zone areas.

There were many blessings that came out of this too like people realized that they need each other.  People accepted help from whoever could and would help them without prejudice or judgment.  There were no lives lost and it could have been much worse than it was.  There was also free food and water handed out and in one case I heard of a man that owned a gas station who gave away gas to flood victims in his area to the sum of a lot of money.  

So, if you look for the blessings you can find them for which we ought to thank and praise the Lord.  God is still God and His purpose is not to harm us but to give us hope and a future.  You can find that in Jeremiah 29:11.  God still loves you regardless of what took place and He is worthy of our praise and thanks.  So I want to encourage you to take some time out just to thank and praise Him and let Him change your perspective on your situation.  God bless and have a great day!