Psalms 34:1 – I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. Rain, snow or sunny weather doesn’t change the character of God. He is the very present help to His beloved children at all times and is near to them always. He looks after them in all circumstances and meets all their needs. All His actions cause them to praise Him all the time. Some of the experiences of God’s people might not be joyful in itself, but they will learn in the due course that it was all for their good and that it all worked together in their lives for God to accomplish His purpose in their lives. When we know Him through the expression of His attributes in our lives and around us, it ought to make us praise Him. His glory can be seen in all that He takes us through to cause us to praise Him. He teaches us His truth through our experiences on a daily basis. He encourages us when we face rough patches in life. He admonishes us to walk in His pathways and not to take detours. He gives us the desires of our hearts to enable us to walk according to His will for us. He allows us the experiences of both hills and valleys. In the valleys, He teaches us that He is with us to take us through the low experiences of life and take us out of it. He also helps us to climb the hills as He accomplishes great things in and through us. When the enemy comes to fight us, He uses us as instruments to fight him out because it is His battle and not ours. When we consider these multifarious ways by which the Lord takes us through life experiences, all of it would cause us to praise Him. There won’t be any moment when we would not be able to praise Him because He works all the time in our lives for our good and for His glory.
Dear reader, if you are going through difficulties, recognize it as the Lord’s leading to teach splendid lessons in your walk with Him, and that ought to make you praise Him. If you are confronted with the enemy face to face, you can fearlessly praise the Lord because in such circumstances He is with you. When you have some unmet needs, you can praise Him for His ways to meet those needs at the right time. When you go through pain, consider it an avenue to praise Him because in comparison to the pain many others are going through, perhaps your pain is not unbearable. Praise Him also for His compassion in removing the pain at the right time. If your pain is not removed here on earth, soon there will be a time when you will reach His presence in Heaven where there will be no more pain. If you have experiences of failure in life, remember to praise Him because you have already gained so much as a child of God and that even when you loose materially, no one can stop you from gaining spiritually. Please also remember that the gain or loss on earth doesn’t matter because these things do not have any value in the accounting of God. If you are friendless and lonely, praise Him for He is your wonderful and never-changing friend. All our earthly experiences are worth praising the Lord at all times because they work together for our good and for Him to be glorified in our lives. So whether you are in front of tyrants like Abimelech, in prison cells of circumstances like Joseph, in lion’s den like Daniel or in fiery furnace of adversity like the three Jewish men, you are in the presence of God from where His peace emanates to you to cause you to praise God. Today is another day He has created for you to praise Him and to live for His glory.
Psalms 118:1 – Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures for ever. Thought for TodayPraise is the prism through which the glory of God will come in to fill us during the darkest days of our lives.
