"GOD INHABITS OUR PRAISES"

Good Morning to Everyone!

I'm coming to you from the frozen tundra of Comanche, Texas. Hubby and I woke up this morning to frozen water pipes, and yes they were wrapped and we even left them dripping, as well as a rolling blackout, where they turn everyone's electricity off for a while to conserve electricity. Of course that didn't help the Dallas/Fort Worth area where 43,000 homes are left without power. Anyway, hubby and I braved the icy roads to get to a hotel in town so we would have the comforts of hot water (water period) and hopefully electricity for the rest of the day and night. Now, on with my post. Today and maybe until Saturday, (when it warms up) we will be staying in a hotel in Comanche.

Have you ever thought about the word praise? OH! How important that word is. It can mean the difference to a child between growing up with low or high self-esteem and confidence. It can mean the difference in a loving or just tolerating marriage, or whether a person excels in school or at their job.

PRAISE IS IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE INCLUDING GOD.

The definition of praise is the act of worship or acknowledgment by which the virtues or deeds of another are recognized and extolled.

Praise to God is accomplished in a lot of different ways. Everything from a head bowed in prayer, to eyes uplifted, lifted hands to shouting for joy. Singing, leaping, and dancing cause the Lord gladness. Anything where we step out of the ordinary to praise God pleases Him. This is because that means sacrifice. If we stay in our normal everyday "rut" and do nothing but the ordinary routine, then it is not really a sacrifice. God sacrificed His human self for us, so why is it so hard for us to step out of our comfort zone a little bit to show Him we are NOT embarrassed to show our affections toward Him. I wonder how many of us show our affections toward our boyfriends, or spouses by kissing them in public? Praising God is not near as much a public demonstration.

I praise Him while driving down the road. just a few people might see me doing that at the speed we are driving, and at a distance what can they see, my hand in the air? I praise Him at my kitchen sink. No one sees me but my hubby and He thinks I'm crazy anyway. LOL! I praise Him in the bathtub. Hubby just thinks I'm talking to myself, nothing new there. See, praising isn't so hard. At church, I praise Him by singing shouting and dancing, but there are others doing the same, and even if they aren't they should be, so I don't feel embarrassed by giving God what He wants. It seems so little in exchange for what He's given me.

Praise is the means by which God's rule and presence may be invited into the midst of any group or private situation or circumstance: The Lord is enthroned in the praises of Israel" Psalm 22:3.

Psalm 122:3-4 says Jerusalem is built -As a city that is compact together, Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD , To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the LORD.

In this verse, the visitor (Queen of Sheba) is awed by not only the buildings of Jerusalem, but also the fact that the city was the place for the worship of God. "Where the tribes go up" refers to the annual feast of ancient Israel as well as to any time that an individual of family needed to worship the Lord in the Holy City. The temple was built in a way that the priests had to walk up many steps to get to the door of the temple. As they walked up, every third step they would stop and dance for the Lord and give Him praise. When they all reached the top, they would do this and be like a choir.

We must keep in mind that EVERYTHING that is in the Word of God, He must have felt important to say, because God does not use idle words. He doesn't chit-chat. He said in Psalm 150:

Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals!

Let EVERYTHING that has breath PRAISE the LORD.

A wonderful example of a "praiser" is King David. Yes, he was an adulterer, a murder, and a liar, but you know what? He was forgiven. He praised God like no one else. He appreciated the privilege and opportunity to praise God.

In the Old Testament time, they had what they called the "Law of Exclusion". This is when someone in the family sinned against God, for ten generations this family was not allowed to worship in the temple. David had a reason to praise God because he was the first person in his family to be able to worship after his family was excluded. I would say he was making up for lost time. Even after doing all of the things he did, because God saw his heart and knew he was good, He called David a man after God's OWN Heart.

We were created to live and breathe in an atmosphere of praise-filled worship to our Creator. The movement of God's power is to be kept flowing by the joy and humble praise to God. God inhabits the praises of His people.

1. In Genesis 29:35 God's Word says that Judah means "praise", and out of this man comes a great tribe of Israel. In 49:8 Jacob spoke many important words over Judah, giving him the highest blessing, such as "his brothers will praise him, he will triumph over his enemies. Verse 10 says he will have royal authority, legal authority and will bring forth the Messiah.

2. Praise Cures "Dry Times" Numbers 21:16, 17 tells us that praise is the cure for the dry times that come to every believer, for here the praise of God caused waters to flow from a well.

3. Worship in Holiness - (1 Chronicles 16:29) To worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness is to worship God in the adornment, enrichment, and enhancement of His "otherness" and sacredness. He is separate and set apart from all that He created. He is the Holy One--this is His crowning attribute that sums up all of His attributes. To worship and praise God in this manner keeps our worship transcendent and God-centered: that is , unrestricted by the world's style and unpolluted by human self-centeredness. In other words when we focus completely on God and his holiness, when we stop, close our eyes and think about how wonderful and holy He is we will lose our train of thought thinking about "us". We won't worry about what people are thinking about us. After all, it's not about us, it's ALL ABOUT HIM.

4. Praise invokes the Presence of God. (2 Chronicles 5:13). This verse demonstrates the power of God's presence that results from a unified vocal praise. God's glory filled the temple. I will say here though that any praise brings the presence of God to us, so this verse is not saying that we have to be in a unified group to be in God's presence. I know that, because I have done it driving down the road, washing dishes, and even sitting in my bath tub. Anytime you want to feel the presence of God, all you have to do is focus upon Him, sing to Him, and sincerely praise His name, and He will come to you.

Starting out, I didn't realize how indepth I was going to get in my study of Praise to God. I am totally enjoying this study, so I have decided to break this study down into several posts. I will continue along this same topic in tomorrow's post. I hope you are enjoying and will enjoy this study as much as I am. If someone were to ask me my favorite past-time I would definitely say with no hesitation or doubt "praising the Lord".

I just realized how long this post was. I would like to think it is because of the "long narrow typing area and the enlarged pictures, rather than me being long-winded! LOL!

Good Night to All and May God Bless!