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More Praise

             Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. (Psalm 95:1-2)

 

            I keep telling myself that I need to focus on giving thanks to God, but as I read this passage, what comes to mind is the fact that we tend to think of God as needy because there’s so much talk about how He should be thanked, praised, extoled, sung to, etc. I’m not suggesting that He doesn’t deserve any of those things. He does. But Scripture just makes God seem so pathetic.

            It’s like the story of the guy who was irritated with his wife because – after twenty-five years of marriage – dared to ask if he loved her. “I told you I loved you the day we got married,” he answered. “And if that had changed, I’d have told you.” We’re generous, we’re willing to tell God we love Him, or that He’s great, or whatever on special occasions, but we don’t want to get crazy with it. There’s way too much we need to be sober, serious, and practical about. To paraphrase a Kenny Rogers tune, “There’ll be time enough for praising, when the living’s done.”

            But when I turn from the window to the mirror, somehow, things change. God hasn’t done any miracles, answered any of my prayers, or otherwise expressed His love for me in some dramatic way in the past 3.1415926 seconds! I keep telling Him how miserable I am and how much I need for Him to confirm His presence in my life and His love for me, but…silence. Harumph!

            I justify this, of course, with the idea that “He’s God and I’m not.” He’s not supposed to have needs, but He created us to have needs. And part of the reason I need Him to acknowledge His love for me and do miracles for me (etc.) is because none of the people He put in my life are doing it. No, again, 3.1415926 seconds go by and there’s no line of people out there singing my praises. If there were, I’d be too embarrassed for words to express. (Sorry, I’m reading Anne of Green Gables.)

            But what if (as I’ve suggested before) this call for us to praise and give thanks with great generosity and exuberance wasn’t about God’s needs or even about God? What if it was about us? What if this is the way God thinks we should be in general? What if I got as effusive and loquacious about God – or you – as I do about busting little old ghosts or completing projects?

            Yes, it might all seem over-the-top – now. Going from fewer than 5  praises per hour to more than 99 per hour might seem crazy, but what if we just aimed for one word of praise to God, and one to someone else per day? Or one more? What if we worked toward the goal of praising others and loving others as we want to be praised and loved? Wouldn’t that tend to move us closer to the level of praise David wrote about?

            I admit – this isn’t easy. I’ve picked out a couple of people over the past year and worked on it a little. It’s like pulling my own teeth sometimes, but it’s been a positive thing. I just need to up my game from a 1 to a 2. And just as an afterthought, think for a moment about how hard it is to go from 0 to 1. You might say that it’s takes more than 100% more. Going from a 1 to a 2 takes 100% ore. Going from a 2 to a 3 only takes 50% more. Going from a 3 to a 4 only takes 33% more… It’s hardest to get started. But it gets easier to increase as you go.

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