Instead of breaking out in a sweat over situations we need
to break out in praise to the Lord. “Praise? You expect me to praise God at a
time like this, I don’t feel like it!” We are not to do it simply because we “feel”
like it but because it’s the right thing to do.
Praise moves us from the clouds to sunshine from doubt to
faith. Once when I was feeling down an elder at our church saw me and told me,
“Chin up Karen and praise the Lord.” Praise the Lord? What in the world was he
talking about he must not understand my current situation and what I’m dealing
with. I knew better, I knew he was well aware of what I was dealing with in
life. And most importantly I knew in my heart he was right about praising God.
Years ago I had already learned the lesson that it’s not for
the situation itself we are praising the Lord but praising God for who He is
and what He can help us with and for the little things in life. In every situation
we find ourselves in if we take the time to look we can find something there we
can praise the Lord for. If all we can do is praise the Lord for toilet paper,
colorful paint, door handles, crawling ants or anything it gets our mind going
in the right direction.
When sucked into depression it’s very difficult to find
things to praise God for and that’s when we need to start looking at all we see
and think about and praise God. It’s a process that un-sticks our praise
searcher button that is temporarily blocked from working properly. It’s a way
of getting it going again and to beat the stress that has moved in on us.
To help out any whose praise searcher button is currently
stuck, I will start by praising God naming the things I current see around me,
things directly in front of my face. As I go around the room I will leave out on
purpose the things that remind me of the bad in life like my cancer, issues
with other people, headaches, and worries about my parents wellbeing.
Here we go: Praise the Lord for electricity, for lamps it
lights up, the computer it keeps running, the TV it makes come alive. Praise
you Lord for our black lab sleeping at my feet, the sound of the rooster
crowing outside, and the cow bawling for her breakfast to be served. Praise you
Lord for warm socks on my feet, pictures of love ones to remind me of the good
times in life. Praise you for calendars and the pictures they display. Praise
you Lord for the carpet that is soft on my feet and the hardwood floor that still
have the skid marks on it from my grandson making a game out of sliding on it.
Praise you Lord for the artwork you created just outside my window for me to
see as the wind blows the branches on the trees. Praise you for comfortable
furniture to sit upon and curtains draping from the windows. Praise you for the
sound of a clock chiming, the coffee pot brewing, and the heater running. Praise
you Lord that in spite of what I have to deal with in life I have blessings to
count and the number one blessing on the list is You, Lord God. Praise you Lord
for today and the use of it. Praise you Lord I’m alive to live it, it didn’t
have to be me. Praise you that I can live my life to Your glory no matter what.
Praise you for loving me.
There you go, I went first now it’s your turn to get your
praise searcher button unstuck. Bypass the bad and start to praise the Lord
anyway no matter what. As you can see there are plenty of things we can praise
the Lord for whether we “feel” like it or not. Making the choice to wait until
we feel like it is bad for us and good for our enemy so start today for
tomorrow will be too late.
© 2013 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes
Publishing for COCWF
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