Praising has its Benefits
Have you been praised today? Maybe someone praised your new hairdo or praised your amazing talents and skills. Maybe YOU praised someone for their sense of humor, like I often do to someone I know! It gives us a sense of “good” pride knowing that someone “noticed” us and our abilities. Suddenly, we might even stand a little taller and our smile is bigger!
And, even more so, think about how God must feel when we praise Him for His handiworks and His incomparable and overwhelming love for us. You and I were created to worship God. But why would God create human beings to receive their praise and worship? Isn’t that being egotistical?
God is an infinite, perfect, Trinity of persons, responsible for the intentional creation of everything around us – which begs the question, if God is perfect, why does He need us to worship him?
Well, He doesn’t. God doesn’t need us to worship him because there is nothing He lacks. He isn’t on Instagram or Facebook and looking for numbers of “likes”!! He isn’t starving for attention. So why is He so eager for us to worship Him?
Answer: He created us to worship because He knows that praise is an action that builds us up. Our hearts were made for Him. When He says “Worship Me”, He is inviting us into a relationship with Him. He is inviting us to trust Him. AND, when we are praising Him, we are pointing others to Him. We can’t help but praise someone we love and our worship to God is our expression of love to Him.
Being a C.S. Lewis fan, I was helped in my understanding of worship through his “Reflections on the Psalms”. He wrote: ‘I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise… the world rings with praise… walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare books, even sometimes politicians and scholars.”
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It’s not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”
Praise is humble adoration of our Almighty God. Praise voices sincere and deep gratitude for who God is and what He has done. As we praise Him, we submit ourselves to the One who is worthy and Whose love is unfailing.
Now, let’s stop for just a minute to PRAISE HE Who is worthy of our praise!
Lord, we worship You. Thank You for saving us. Thank You for Your love and faithfulness. Thank You that we can worship You with joyful songs, praises and even dancing. Thank You for Your great love that sent us Your beloved Son to die for us so that we can spend eternity praising and worshipping YOU!
Doesn’t that feel good? Praising has its benefits. It gets us out of “Woe is me”, to praising and worshipping He Who is worthy of all our praise and worship. Eyes off me/us and the eyes of our hearts on Him. How sweet it is!
“My mouth is filled with Your praise, declaring Your splendor all day long.” Psalm 71:8
“Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Psalm 106:1