The Power of Praise

 The Bible is full of commands for us to praise the Lord. There are a lot of good reasons for those commands, as there are for all of God's commands. God certainly does not need our praise. He is not conceited. He knows that praise is good for us. Therefore, when we praise Him, He responds in a very positive way, so we will praise Him even more. King Jehoshaphat was about to face a huge enemy force, so he prayed for God's deliverance. The Lord sent a message by a prophet that Israel would not have to fight the battle. God would fight for them. Therefore, the king put the choir in front of the army as they advanced on the enemies. (II Chronicles 20:22) Miraculously, as they began to sing and praise the Lord, God set ambushes among the enemy armies. They actually defeated each other before the army of Judah arrived. God honored the king's prayer and the faith of the people to go forth with praise, instead of the army first. We can all learn from this.

True praise for the Lord takes faith. We must believe what we are praising Him about or it is meaningless. Therefore, to praise the Lord we have to know His character or we have to have heard from God. Either way, we can respond by praising Him for Who He is or for what He has revealed to us. God loves to see that faith, and God always blesses us when we express our faith, so He loves our praises. In fact, when we sing His praises, or we express our praise for Him in speech, it strengthens our faith, too. It reminds us of how great God is, and that enables us to trust Him more easily and more fully. All of that is the power of praise, when we praise the One True and Living God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I urge all of us to remember to praise God in our prayers, as we enter His presence, and in our worship, both in private and in our church worship times. Praise should be where we begin because God is so worthy of all of our praise.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 22-24.