Are you intentional with your praise ?
Scripture
“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your Name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your Name forever and ever.” - Psalm 145:1-2
Observation
This is a scripture of praise. In life, it’s very easy to be caught up in your needs and desires that you forget to take a moment to just praise the Lord. I love the entirety of this scripture (in fact the whole chapter) because its main focus is on God, our King. Here, the psalmist proclaims he will extol His God, our God , the King of Kings. To extol means to raise up , to exalt and to lift Him up . Not only will He do this but He will bless God’s Name forever . The root meaning of the word “Name” is reputation, fame and glory. Meaning He will proclaim and say good things not just about God but His reputation, His glory , what He’s done , what He’s yet to do and many more . One thing I also noticed was that he will bless God “every day ” meaning praise is a lifestyle. It shouldn’t be reduced to a Sunday praise where we are led by the choir, music minister or only when things are going on well for us . Day in day out, we need to lift up the name of God, His reputation and His works up high .
Application
No matter what we face we need to always have a heart posture of praise . Because the truth is what we go through is NOT a reflection of God . He’s a good God and He’s worthy of our praise every single day . This looks like being intentional when you go to Him in a place of prayer. For instance instead of just asking and asking about your needs and wants just praise His name . Call out His character and His attributes. Even if you find yourself going through the most difficult battles . Why ? Because it will interest you to know that in the olden days when they went for a battle for instance , the levites will lead the army praising , shouting and singing songs to God. This gave them victory. ( 2 Chronicles 20: 22) Praise is a weapon that can be easily overlooked. However make it a point to praise God when you first wake up even before picking your phone, through out the day saying phrases like “You’re good and Your mercies endures forever” “I bless you Lord” etc. As a human when you’re complimented it makes you feel good and want to do more how much more the One whom all power belongs to and all good and perfect blessings flow from ?
Prayer
Heavenly Father thank You for today. Thank You for who You are. Thank you for waking me up day in and day out and delivering me from the hands of the enemy . Thank You for being a merciful and a gracious God. Thank You for being my strong tower even on the days I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I bless Your Holy name for you are a good God, gracious and slow to anger. Thank You for sending Your son to forgive me of my sins that I too may have a chance at eternal life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.