My friends in Christ, how often during the course of a day do we say " Praise The Lord " or " Thank God " ? Have these expressions become meaningless to us or have these precious words become just a habit ?  Why do we say these phrases, do they really come from our heart, or do we just say them because we think these expressions are what Christians should be saying ?

Praising God means to applaud, exalt, admire, endorse, approve, boast , glorify, magnify and extol. To praise is to affirm our approval of something before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we are in a difficult situation, we still should praise God. Why ? Because the Bible tells us in  (1 Thess 5:16-18 to " rejoice in everything, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of Jesus Christ concerning you " )

Praise involves both gratitude and joy. We cannot praise Jesus without being thankful and we cannot be thankful without being joyful. It is a joy just to praise Jesus for being our Savior ( Psalm 100:4 - " enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, be thankful unto Him and bless His name" )

This is the way Jesus wants us to come into His Presence. Our lips and our lifestyle should constantly be praising Jesus. He rejoices in our praise to Him. We are to begin our worship with praise-Psalm 100:4 . We are to praise Him with our voices-Psalm 34:1, with song -Psalm 147:1, and with music -Psalm 150:3-5

1 Peter 2:9 says we are a " chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darknes into His marvelous light " . We need to daily enter into our Savior's Presence and shut the door to the outside world. Praise, thanksgiving and joy belong together, and our commitment to praise and thank Jesus for everything is not complete untill we have committed ourselves to rejoicing in everything that happens in our lives

Praise also increases our faith in Jesus Christ. The more we praise Jesus, the more we become absorbed in His greatness, wisdom faithfulness and love. Therefore, the source of our joy is not to be found in our circumstances, but in knowing Jesus's wonderful love and abiding in that love relationship that lifts us above our daily issues. Remember -when you give praise to Jesus, you are focusing your entire self onto Him.  Psalm 150 :6 says " let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, Praise ye the Lord !!!
 

Daily give our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the praise, glory , honor and thanksgiving that is due Him. Do this and you will put a big smile on the face of your Eternal Savior  !!!
 
 

have a blessed day,    Gary