Praising God

You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. (Psalm 118:28–29)

Scripture clearly expresses the importance of praising God, but if we do not understand the reason behind it, we lose our foundational basis for praising Him—praise without meaning is empty. We must be sure our foundation is the truth of God in every area, including praise.

 As I read the bible over and over, one thing is consistent throughout and that is the praising of God. Every prayer no matter what time of the day should start with praising God.    Following this example, I have incorporated praises to God prior to every prayer.  I praise Him in my morning devotion. I praise Him prior to prayer during the day, and night.  It is extremely important for me to praise him during first part of the church service.  I call on the Holy Spirit and worship and praise Him.  My position is that the praise portion of the service is the most important part of the service.  It is a time to thank Him, magnify Him, honor Him, glorify Him, bless Him, tell Him how much you love Him, and many other praises.  It is a shame that people come late or miss the praise and worship part of the service.

Thank Him:  Everything comes from God including His Son, our finances, hope, mercy, provisions, healing, etc.  We must show our appreciation by thanking Him over and over.  Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Magnify Him: To make Him bigger than anything in Heaven and on Earth.  That we should know that there is none greater than Him.  Ezekiel 38:23  Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” Psalm 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Honor Him:  All honor and praise belong to God and no other.  There are none like Him.  Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

Glorify Him:  The dictionary meaning of glory is praise, honor, worship and to give thanksgiving.  It also says renown which means a state of being widely acclaimed and highly honored.  1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Bless Him:  God showers us with blessings when we are obedient to Him.  We honor Him by blessing Him and thanking Him for our blessings.  Psalm 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Love Him:  Nobody can love us as much as God loves us.  He may hate our sin but God loves us more than you can imagine.  His love is the perfect love and we should embrace this and confess our love for Him throughout the day.  Deuteronomy 11:13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

I start out my morning prayer list with the following and I encourage you to do the same with something similar:

My heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus I come before You with thanksgiving and praise.  I bless Your name.  You are great and greatly to be praised.  I worship You, I adore you, and I love You.  I thank You, Father, for clothing me in a robe of righteousness which covers me because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  I thank you God for being our only God.  I thank you for Your son Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.  I thank You for the Holy Spirit that You sent to be our Helper. 

We must recognize that God is our Creator; He is our Lord, and as a result, we should praise Him.  Know that the Lord is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Moreover, we should also praise God for His unending mercy. Salvation is from God, and He has given us many spiritual blessings. Our response should be one of praise and glory to God. After all, the Lord is good, and His mercy is everlasting.

Sadly, there are those who do not want to recognize God as their Creator, because they do not want to be accountable to Him. Their lips say they love Him, but instead, they worship the world. Matthew 15:8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

Thank Him daily in prayer for supplying our daily physical needs. We should also thank Him for the satisfying and refreshing bread and water of life that we received because of His Son Jesus Christ. Songs of worship and thanksgiving also praise God. It is good to sing aloud at Christian gatherings. All are praising the same God with the same words, thinking the same thoughts, singing the same tune. All come before God in the name of the same Savior, filled with the influence of the Holy Spirit. Acts 4:24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them. This is Christian unity as it is commonly experienced at its sweetest. However, the child of God can experience even sweeter joys.

We declare He is God Almighty and we PRAISE Him.  Amen!