Giving God praise in all things has recently proven to be a truly significant topic on the private website, and we have been very blessed with some totally amazing testimonies demonstrating God’s faithfulness to bless and reward…faithfully giving us more to praise Him for when we faithfully praise Him. It’s always been my heart’s desire to help men and women understand the SUPERNATURAL power released into our lives through praise as we stand for the full and complete restoration of our marriages and families, and the following post by Thursa really illustrates that. When we understand that God is only motivated by bringing praise, honor and glory to His Son, Jesus Christ, as declared in Ephesians 1, we can better understand why He disdains our failure to honor Him with our praise and in our deeds.

There’s a vitally important cycle that we all really need to understand; when we are obedient, God blesses us and Jesus is honored and glorified. And then when we praise the Lord and bring honor and gory to Jesus, God blesses and rewards us with even more to praise and glorify Him. And there is NO glory for Jesus when we focus on our problems and sit on the pity pot and are blinded because we’re too busy making everything about “us” and totally miss all of the blessings God bestows on us every day of our lives. We can focus on the problem or the promise and we can live in faith or fear; but as long as we live in fear and insist on focusing on the problems instead of glorifying and magnifying the Lord with our praise and obedience, we are not bringing honor and glory to Jesus Christ and we will NOT see the awesome promises and blessings of God fully manifested in our lives. That’s why I often sound like a broken record and respond so strongly when men and women won’t take their eyes off of their problems and the shortcomings of their spouses; because that’s so totally contrary to everything the Word teaches and instructs us to do. And the bottom line for all of us as we stand for marriage restoration is that THE ONLY WAY TO GET GOD’S results is to DO WHAT THE WORD OF GOD INSTRUCTS US TO DO!

Thankfully, we’ve all been blessed over the past few days to see some amazing victories and breakthroughs which are the undeniable result of praising God in the midst of storms and very strong spiritual attack! So I hope and pray that reading Thursa’s post will remind us to PRAISE GOD IN ALL THINGS, because when we do, we will indeed be blessed and encouraged beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine!

*****
Where are the other Nine? by Thursa
My daughter received a new devotional Bible for Christmas, which I was reading to her from this past Sunday as she picked the titles that sounded good to her. Well, I thought “she” was picking the titles, but as I look back now, I think she heard that still sweet voice telling her one that I particularly needed to hear that day

As I read the story “Jesus Heals the Lepers” from Luke 17:11-19, how Jesus asked “Ten men were healed; where are the other nine? Is this Samaritan the only one who came back to thank God?” really stood out. And then Jesus told the one “You were healed because you believed.” Jesus was obviously disappointed. He had healed ten lepers and only one of them came back to Praise God for the blessing of healing. Disappointed…that is not something I would like Jesus to say about me as I stand and give an account for my life!!! Then I began to think about the Parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, particularly verses 14, 24-25, which I had read earlier in a Joyce Meyer book.

Praise in ALL THINGS is something that has weighed heavy in my spirit lately. And I am sometimes amazed to realize how many of us who profess Christianity are the first to curse and yell at God when things don’t go our way. And many of us are guilty of jumping on the “pity pot” at times; myself included. We actually blame God for our problems. And even when God does bless us, we don’t give Him the Praise He deserves! So why should we be surprised when things don’t seem to go “our way” again? Were we faithful with the smaller “talent” God had given us? Did we bless others by sharing Praise for God or bury it and hope and expect that more would come our way? Sadly, more times than not, we and others are guilty of whining and complaining about what we don’t have and we rarely stop to consider and thank God for all that we DO have!!!

Yet, Psalm 149:1-4 (NLT) says Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful. O Israel, rejoice in your Maker. O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King. Praise his name with dancing, accompanied by tambourine and harp. For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.
This verse declares how God delights in our Praise and that when we humble ourselves and lift up Praise, He brings forth victory! So when we are facing difficulties and looking at all the negative things we see and hear, we have to STOP! We have to turn things around and take the wheel from Satan and begin to Praise God in ALL things as instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:18…give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus! And it is completely amazing and wonderful to see how joy and peace comes over us as we lift up our Praises! And if the declaration that God delights in us and gives us victory doesn’t get us off of the pity pot, we just need to read the warning found in 1 Samuel 2:30, which says “Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and your father’s house would minister before me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.

God is warning that if we want to stay on our “pity pot” and despise God rather than honoring Him with our Praise, He is going to disdain us. So from the lepers, we see how not Praising God is disappointing to Him and now we see how it could also bring His disdain for us! That makes lifting our Praises to God a pretty important thing to do!!! Then referring back to the parable of the talents, God doesn’t just expect our praise for the big things; He wants to hear Praises for ALL that He gives and blesses us with and in ALL THINGS! It’s just plain and simple…our God is a GREAT and AWESOME God and He simply deserves and commands our praises in ALL things!!!

So let’s kick Satan to the curb and CONTINUALLY keep those Praise juices flowing and share ALL that God blesses us with, for He IS so WORTHY of our Praise!!! And let’s PLEASE GOD as we DO as instructed in Hebrews 13:15-16…Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Posted Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 10:35 am in Seeds Of Faith.