"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." -Psalm 150:6
Praise-
We know how great our God is. But how often do we really acknowledge it? It's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of our daily lives that we don't carve out the time in our schedules to truly praise Him.
Who is Jesus to you? This can seem like a repetitive question, especially if you've grown up in church. But I urge you to really think about the question and which specific words you feel do the best in describing your relationship with Him. To me, He is my Savior. He's my Father, my Teacher, my Best Friend, my Hope, my Refuge, my Everything, and so much more that couldn't even begin to do His grace justice. Based off of my last chapter, I think you all know how my relationship with Him has been a little distant lately, but even by just describing Him and what He truly means to me, it does wonders for my heart.
As Christians, we like to think we praise the Lord as if it's second nature-like how we breathe. But maybe that's not such a good thing. I don't know about you, but I never want to get to a point where my time spent praising Him has as little of an effect on my mind and heart as breathing. It should be a conscious meeting with him. It should be something that brings us to tears, not something we do without thinking. Because He deserves so, so much more than that. The least we can give Him is our attention, don't you think?
In my last chapter, I discussed my absence of feelings and the effect it had on my walk with God. As a result, I have had to shift my routine a bit when it comes to spending time with Him. A lot of you said that you were also struggling with a similar road block, and here are the things I found to help me tremendously. Even if you're on your A game right now with your relationship with Him, these are still things we all need to be using to praise Him!
Reading His word absolutely goes without saying. When living in a world throwing so many different beliefs and values around, it is vital to be reminded of what's important through the Bible. The basics are so easy to overlook because they've been ingrained in our minds all of our lives. But in order to have them tucked in our hearts, we have to remind ourselves of them. We have to remind ourselves of who He is from time to time in order to live like we know who He is.
When we go through a tough time, it's very easy to only talk to God when you want something in return. There's nothing wrong for praying for His help and guidance; He specifically tells us to give Him our burdens. But that's not all He's good for! If we turn our relationship with Him into an "I'll do this if you could do this one thing for me..." kind of situation, we miss out on so much of what He is offering us. Sometimes, we just have to take a step back and truly praise Him. Do you understand how powerful He is? How loving? How merciful and forgiving and awesome? Yet, He still longs to know us. Yes, He's capable of so many things, and while it's okay to ask for His hand in your life, sometimes you just have to acknowledge those capabilities without expecting anything but a meaningful moment in return.
We may not always be able to control how we feel, but we do have the ability to control what we do. I want to spend my time learning about the Lord. I want to worship Him and talk to Him and just be thankful for Him. Without that, it's easy for our lives and their meanings to become misconstrued.
Dear God, You are such an awesome God! It still sometimes amazes me that you want to spend time with me. You are worthy of so much more praise than I can give You, but I will gladly worship You with all I have. I thank You for everything that you do. I love You, and I pray that You never let me stray from that. Amen.
[A/N: I know I have been gone for quite a while now! And I have felt guilty about it because I want to be here for you guys and offer up any wisdom I can. But I don't want to be on here to meet a deadline. I want to be typing because God is speaking through me. Because if He doesn't show up, any words I can type or time I can scrounge up is useless. He's the one who's reaching out to you. And if He decides He wants to use me, whenever He wants to use me, I am more than willing for whatever He asks for. I am thankful you guys are still sticking around, because I know He isn't done with me quite yet and especially not with you!]