Choose To Praise!



I love church! I know that's what most people expect to hear from pastors, but I really mean it.  I love to be in fellowship with the saints, and I enjoy every opportunity I have to lift up the name of Jesus! 

There's something about the excitement I feel when I see the people of God praising him for all that he's done.  When I think about what he has done for me, thanksgiving flows out of my heart and praise out of my mouth.  I've met some people who can't praise God because life has not gone the way they wanted. They don't have everything they think they should.  Some have lost loved ones.  Some have faced personal tragedies.  It makes me sad to know that there are people who don't know the pleasure of praise.

People seek pleasure (enjoyment) from their jobs, relationships, and success, but there is a greater pleasure.  It comes from knowing the one who is greater! It comes from a relationship with the Almighty God.  I know a thing or two about hurt and disappointment.  I've had people I love betray me, and people I helped hurt me. I've had to shed some tears, but I've learned to give God praise even as I wipe those tears away.  No, not because I always felt like it, but because of the goodness of God.  Those who can't praise him must get out of their feelings.  

There will be times when your circumstances will make you want to praise God, but you must understand that praise cannot be a mere product of how you feel.   If you only praise God when things are going well, then you are praising the things, not God!  God deserves your praise, not because of how your life is going, but because he gave you life! Praise must come from inside.  

If you can't find it in you to praise God, make a decision to praise him anyhow! Decide that in spite of what you are going through, you will praise the one who can bring you through.  Decide to lift up God.  Glorify him.  Magnify him. Before you know it, your praise will be your first instinct.  It will become second nature, and the enjoyment of praise will overtake you. 

Come what may, hallelujah anyhow! 

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  Psalm 34:1


Reaching the lost at any cost, 

Pastor Odie Kennedy

Sunset Joy photo by Shirley Serban

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