I read an article from Luke54.org - New Believers: Praise (1) Offering today. I feel the need to extract key points to remind myself to learn and practice to praise God in various things and in various situations. (The original article was written in Chinese. I translate the key points into English below.)
- Praise is the highest work of a child of God. In other words, the highest expression of a saint's spiritual life is to praise God. The throne of God is the highest point of God in the universe. Psalm 22:3 "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises." God's name and God Himself is exalted by praises. Both David and Solomon knew God’s will and offered praises that were acceptable to God. Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."
- From the Psalms, God shows us that those who utter praises are who God has brought them through difficult situations and their feelings got hurt. We have also seen many saints who were brought into darkness, rejected, slandered, and persecuted by people. But, God is praised by these people. So, not all words of praise come from the mouths of those who have done well but come from those who have been tested and pressed. Those who praise the loudest are often those who have gone through difficulties before God.
- Hebrews 13:15 "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise..." What is an offering? An offering is a sacrifice. An offering means death and loss. Those who offer sacrifices should have a loss before they can offer sacrifices. Originally this ox and this sheep belonged to you. But if you offer them up today, you have sacrificed this ox and this sheep. Therefore, offering sacrifices does not gain anything but loses something. When the saints offer praises, they lose something to offer a sacrifice to God. In other words, God allows you to get hurt, to be grinded down, to be cut deep, but you go to Him to praise Him. This kind of act of hurting yourself so that God can be praised is a sacrifice. How can God be praised? When His children have suffered a loss and they still praise Him, God likes this kind of praise.
- David was blessed by God to praise God seven times a day. If we can praise every day, this is good learning, good homework, and a good spiritual exercise.
- Your praise is like taking your fattest calf out to be slaughtered and like binding your dear Isaac to the altar. You are praising with tears, and this is a sacrifice of praise. You have been wounded before God, have died before God, have lost and sacrificed before God. Right there you see that God’s throne is settled in the sky and God’s throne will never be shaken, so you cannot but praise God. This is a sacrifice of praise.
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