Can I be so bold as to say that I believe, we as Christians,
tend to be a little lackluster when it comes to offering God the sacrifice of praise? I don’t know why that is. We certainly don’t hold back when it comes to
requesting prayer, and biblically speaking, God tells us to come to Him with
our requests. We all know that prayer moves the mighty Hand of God. But should
we really expect Him to exclusively grant all our requests? Could it be that at times He withholds
answering our prayers because there is something we are failing to do? Now,
we’ve all been taught that God always answers our prayers. Sometimes with a “yes”, sometimes with a
“no”, and sometimes with a “wait.” In
reality, God does not need us to do anything in order for Him to answer our
prayers. The sheer essence of praying to
God is for our benefit, not God’s. It is
so that we will develop a relationship with God and learn to depend on Him. In
the process, our faith grows exponentially when we experience the God of the
universe stooping down to help us in our time of need. We are filled with awe
and thanksgiving for how He has answered our prayers, and then we go on to our
next set of prayer requests. While there is nothing wrong with requesting help
from our heavenly Father, lately I have been feeling like something is missing
during my prayer life. Prayer is more than just requesting things from God,
isn’t it?
Can it be that our minds are forever focusing on the
difficult life issues that continually surround us? Everywhere you look there are hurting, dying,
and lost people. Just watch the news and you’ll get a mega dose of hard core
reality. Ironically, very seldom do the media have any “good” news to
report. It’s not that there is no good
news—they just choose not to share it with the rest of us. For some reason,
it’s the bad stuff that grabs our attention. God offers us a solution as to
what we should and should not allow in our minds. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”
Philippians 4:8. This admonition enables us to not continually focus on the
negative around us; however, when it comes to controlling our thought life, it
can still be very difficult. We don’t need to listen to “bad” news to have
“bad” or “negative” thoughts. Through
spiritual maturity and discipline we may learn how to hold our tongues, but the
battle over the mind wages on. Have you
ever paid close attention to the meaning of 1 Corinthians 2:16? It says, “For
who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the
mind of Christ.” How can we possibly have the mind of Christ when our flesh and
the evil one continually war against us in our private thought life? You know, that part of you that no one else
can see. Sure, we can look pretty “holy”
on the outside, and through practice we can learn to control what we say or how
we say it, but taming the mind is an entirely different matter.
I recently read something in my daily devotional, Jesus
Calling by Sarah Young that resonated with me. It was simple, yet profound.
Why had I not thought about this before? Written from God’s perspective it said, “Let
me control your mind. The mind is the most restless, unruly part of mankind.
Long after you have learned the discipline of holding your tongue, your
thoughts defy your will and set themselves up against me.” Wow! How very true. It went on to say that God
risked all by granting us the freedom to think for ourselves, and this is what
sets us apart from animals and robots. We are made in the image of God,
precariously close to deity. Wow,
again! Do you get that? We are close to
deity!!! That must be true or God
wouldn’t have said, “But you have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). The
reading ended with an exhortation to open ourselves to God’s radiant presence,
letting His light permeate our thinking.
“Ok, Lord. I want to
do this. I belong to you and you know I
love you. But I struggle here. Just today I had thoughts that I know were
not of you. There were unkind toward someone else, and I was instantly
convicted by the Holy Spirit.” Then, I remembered this devotional reading and I
immediately asked for forgiveness. This time I went a step further and asked
God to control my mind. I felt better
after confessing my sin. I reasoned if
only I can take captive all the negative thoughts that whirl around in my head
occupying needless space, I know God will help me to have the mind of Christ. How?
Well, I wasn’t sure, but He is God, after all.
Interestingly, God wasn’t finished dealing with me on this
topic just yet. He wanted to make sure that I fully understood. Then something
beautiful happened during prayer time with my ladies’ leadership group. God gave me revelation as to “how” He would
control my mind. Although He surely didn’t need any assistance from me, He
would require my activate participation in this process. After our group openly shared our hearts and
prayer requests, we began to pray as we always do. We lifted up our requests to
the God who can do exceedingly more than we can ever imagine, but before long,
the requests began to turn into praises. One by one, praises were being offered
to the Lord. Praises for the small,
seemingly insignificant things, and praises for the big things He has done
amongst our group. In the midst of the heavy burdens that we were carrying for
ourselves, our families, and our friends, our time of prayer turned into a
wonderful time of praise and thanksgiving. My emotions completely took over and
it wasn’t long before the tears began to flow. The Spirit-filled prayer was so
beautiful and pure. Innately, I sensed that this is precisely what was missing from
my prayer life and what God longs to hear from all of His children. He already knows
our every need, and He promises not to withhold any good thing from us, but He
also delights in hearing our thanksgiving and heartfelt acknowledge-ment that we
believe He is God; that we believe He is good; and, that we know with full
certainty He is faithful, regardless of the pain and the circumstances we may
find ourselves in. In fact, if we don’t
offer Him praise, even the rocks will cry out! (When the Pharisees in the crowd
ordered Jesus to rebuke his disciples for praising Him, he replied, “If they
keep quiet, the stones will cry out” Luke 19:40). Have you ever considered a
bunch of rocks crying out praises to God?
If we don’t do it, they will! Goodness gracious, may we never allow
inanimate objects to come to life to praise Him, when we have been made in the
very image of God. We are the ones who should be shouting from the rooftops
with praises to our King!
As I was driving home from the prayer meeting, God confirmed
to my heart that He will partner with me in controlling my mind by using my
sacrifice of praise. I felt strongly convicted that the next time I have a request,
an urgent plea, or when something troubles me, I should pour out my heart to Him,
but then I am to immediately offer up several praises concerning that particular
request. I was instantly reminded of a
situation I was struggling with where my thought life certainly had a mind of its
own. It’s not that I sinned outwardly by putting these thoughts into action,
but I felt like I was sinning toward God just by having those unkind thoughts. I asked God for help concerning that matter,
but then I immediately offered up five praises concerning that very same
matter. This was a simple exercise, but so relevant. All of a sudden my prayer request didn’t seem
so monumental or overwhelming to me. Instead, my mind focused on the blessings
that had come as a result of this difficulty that God allowed me to go through.
It felt like a “divine exchange” took place at that moment and I was able to
look at my situation with the eyes of God. I remembered Romans 8:28, “And we know that in
all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.”
My impactful take away—I was reminded that good can come out
of every single situation, but my perspective and attitude surrounding the
difficulty is what must change. That must be how to work out our salvation with
fear and trembling. Simply grumbling
about a difficulty will never give us the mind of Christ. But offering it up to Him as a sacrifice of praise
will allow God’s immeasurable grace to flood our souls with His peace
as He imparts to us His “divine vision.” In collaborating with God through our
heartfelt praises, our outlook will change as God meticulously begins the
process of controlling our minds. Glory, Halleluiah! That is certainly
something worth praising Him for!
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm
150:6.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a
sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Hebrews 13:15
“Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my
life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 146:1-2
“How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and
fitting to praise him!” Psalm 147:1
“Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever
and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can
fathom.” Psalm 145:2-3
