Sacrifice of Praise

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