âThrough him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.â Hebrews 13:15-16 ESV
I know I’ve been there, and I know you have too. Those rock-and-a-hard-place situations in life that are nothing short of all the challenges and very little of anything else. Sometimes it feels like it takes the life out of you while also making you feel like youâve got nothing left to give in the aftermath. It reminds me of those plunging roller coaster rides that take you slowly to the tippy top of a gorgeous panoramic viewâŠ..only to drop you, and then slam on the brakes right before youâre certain youâll splat on the ground below. Everyone else walks off the ride like theyâve got a new lease on life, giggling and full of an adrenaline highâŠ..and youâre just trying to hold it together to keep from tossing your cookies in public.
I see you.
While not every season is full of roller-coaster plunges, as we discussed last week here, we know that storms come to all of us in life. While we canât control the storm, we can control our response and one of the surest ways to solidify our standing is to praise God, even if the storms rage. When the challenges of life come, we stand on stronger ground because our focus becomes our foundation: HIM. Praising God is something we are all called to do, but praising God as the storm rages or life plummets? That is a sacrifice. Why? Because sacrifices cost us. Sacrifices mean something to God. A sacrifice doesnât come out of our bounty, they come out of our reserves.
Below I want to highlight 4 postures of the heart that sacrificial praise has the power to teach us:
- I give this to you. This might just be the opening of a door, or the invitation that you have no idea where it is going to goâŠ.but placing something on the table, is significant. Saying that you give it to God is your willing choice to say you are not only giving God something that you value, but you are inviting him to come in and work in a situation you were previously holding onto, or trying to control.
- I surrender this to you. Surrender teaches us that we must let go of what we are giving him, and we let go of the illusion of control we have in any situation. Surrender means we are entrusting the situation to God, and we are trusting him with the outcome. Surrender is a choice, and it is also a discipline to walk out. Both are worth it, because we were never meant to carry it all. Only Jesus can.
- I worship you in the face of this challenge. Remember that rock-and-a-hard-place feeling we talked about in the beginning? Yep, this is where we were going. When we feel challenged, we are often tempted to focus on whatever is coming against us. Everything in us wants to focus on the thing instead of making God the main thing. When we worship him in the face of the challenge, it elicits a sacrificial praise from us that can only be offered this side of eternity. When we are face to face with the King of Glory, our automatic response will be to worship. As we worship through our challenges and trials this side of eternity, we are saying that âeven if it costs me, I will worship you here and now. You are worthy of and worth any cost.â
- I donât want to do this, but Iâm choosing to do this anyway. We are human. We all get tired.We often DONâT want to do things, or be told what to do when it’s contrary to how we feel. But, there is something irrevocably powerful about choosing to do what we need to do, even when we donât feel like doing it. Whether it is lethargy, apathy, or plain olâ lazinessâŠ.sometimes we just donât want to worship. However, we always have the choice. Whatever our state, when we choose to lay ourselves down, it also becomes our choice to let Holy One take center stage.
Can you relate to any or all of these? I hope they help you, friends. I canât say this one is all wrapped up with a nice bow on itâŠ.because quite frankly I’m still in the thick of it. Maybe you are too. But, Iâm learning, and I pray we all are, how utterly invaluable to our relationship with God and to his glorious heart it is to bring a sacrifice of praise. If it costs us, it is valuable to us and to him. He alone, is worthy of it all.
So much love,
Joy