It Is Time to Worship HimSample

Your Praise

Praise to God must have as its purpose the recognition of His greatness and majesty. It carries within itself the conviction that God is real and worthy of all glory. Reverence is part of praise because it springs from a heart convinced of the holiness and magnificence of the God to whom it renders praise.

Unfortunately, among the Christian people, there is much routine and rehearsed praise that is spoken only from the lips outward. This happens because not everyone who praises God does so from the heart. Perhaps it is because they are living a religious experience rather than the experience of a new life in Christ.

Genuine praise occurs within the context of recognizing God's love and the gratitude of one who knows they are loved and forgiven. The grateful heart, knowing its salvation comes from a loving God who did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us, cannot help but worship and praise the One who saved them.

Praise also flows from a heart that delights in creation and its Creator. David expressed this in Psalm 8:1,3-4:

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens... When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”

On one occasion, while I was praying and my mind was wandering through the paths of sleep, I spoke words that startled me: “praising with awareness.” Immediately, I realized that God was telling me I should be conscious of the words I said to Him, rather than being in a mode of repetition, saying words merely out of routine.

I have always thanked God for His intervention, because He created in me the awareness that we should not praise just for the sake of praising. Praise should not be a habit, but an expression of the grateful soul rising to the very presence of God.

Exalting Him, blessing Him, thanking Him, and recognizing Him as our Almighty God leads our soul to that place where every word we say, every song, and every praise is permeated with humility, the joy of knowing Him, and the reverent fear that comes from recognizing His majesty and greatness.

The Psalms are full of expressions of praise, all beautiful and genuine. “My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long” (Psalm 71:8). I invite you to turn to them to hear the expressions of hearts that exalt the Lord and praise Him from the heart.

Biblical references are from the NIV version of the Bible