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Praise

           “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15:55-57)

After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  (Acts 16:23-25)

 

When the going gets tough, the tough get…praising? Maybe I’m wrong, but I suspect that most of us have a hard time praising on our own unless it’s a response to something that happens. We praise when we get together and sing worship music, or when we turn on worship music at home, and that’s certainly allowable, but I know that when I wake up in the morning, my tendency isn’t to start out with “God, You are a wonderful God. Thank you for being Yourself…” It’s more likely, “Help, God, it’s morning again and my feet don’t want to do their job. I have so much to do…”

I also suspect that there’s some habit involved here. Some time ago, I think I wrote that I wanted to start listening to worship music first thing in the morning. Like so many other good ideas, it got lost in the shuffle of life, but let’s return to it. If we are going to get ready to praise when we’re in shackles, or refuse to bow when we’re commanded to worship the golden image, we’re going to have to learn to praise when we trip over our own two feet, or someone picks up the last box of what you’d gone to the store to buy, or the traffic light turns red, or any of the thousands of little nothings that tend to destroy our day. And if we’re going to learn to praise when something minor happens, we’re going to have to learn to praise when good things happen, and when nothing happens. Because if we don’t praise when there’s cause to, or when there’s no cause not to, we’re not likely to learn to praise when the going gets tough.


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