A Sacrifice of Praise
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! - (Philippians 4:4)
Sometimes the last thing we want to do is to give thanks. It’s one thing to give thanks when the bills are paid and our health is good and the future is bright. But when there is a sudden, even tragic, turn in our lives, it isn’t as easy to give thanks.
The Bible tells us, however, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 106:1). Sometimes we feel good. And sometimes we’re not feeling so good at all. Yet we are to give thanks to the Lord.
Think of Job who, in one day, basically lost everything. Anything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Yet he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
We need to have what we might describe as a theology of thanksgiving. We need to understand that thanks should be offered to God regardless of our circumstances. Sometimes our praise will come easily, and other times, quite frankly, it will be a sacrifice.
For Job to offer praise to God in a moment like that was a sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” That means we are to verbalize our praise.
We were created to give glory to God. The highest use of our vocal chords, of our lips, of our mouths, of the formation of our words is to give honor and glory to God. God wants to hear us give Him praise. We need to give God what He deserves, and that is glory.
Copyright © 2017 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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