The last of the praise entries in Mom's journal involves Scriptures. I don't usually do lists of Scriptures, but sometimes it's good to look through God's Word on a specific subject and pick one or two to memorize, to write down, to make our own. So I leave you with this list to do just that. Perhaps just sitting in prayer with these words from the Lord will spark that new, creative way to charge up a sometimes lackluster praise routine for us. I know I could use that!
1 Chronicles 23:30 And each morning and evening they stood before the Lord to sing songs of thanks and praise to Him.
Psalm 63:1-5 O God, You are my God; I earnestly search for You. My soul thirsts for You; my whole body longs for You in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in Your sanctuary and gazed upon Your power and glory. You unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise You! I will praise You as long as I live, lifting up my hands to You in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise You with songs of joy.
Psalm 71:14 But I will keep on hoping for Your help; I will praise You more and more.
Psalm 92:1-2 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening.
Psalm 100:4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His Name.
Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 145:1-4 I will exalt You, my God and King, and praise Your Name forever and ever. I will praise You ever day; yes I will praise You forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure His greatness. Let each generation tell its children of Your mighty acts; let them proclaim Your power.
Psalm 150:1-6 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heaven! Praise Him for His mighty works; praise His unequaled greatness! Praise Him with a blast of the ram's horn; praise Him with the lyre and harp! Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flutes! Praise Him with a clash of cymbals; praise Him with loud clanging cymbals! Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!
Isaiah 61:3 To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for His own glory.
Matthew 25:21 The master was full of praise. 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!
1 Corinthians 4:5 So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time--before the Lord returns. For He will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.
Ephesians 1:3-14 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. That is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ--everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received and inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance and He makes everything work according to His plan. God's purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.
From me.
As I typed that last passage of Scripture I thought to myself, whatever we are going through at that moment, whatever difficulty some seasons of life may bring---this passage gives us reason for praise. It encompasses our past, present and future in Jesus. Maybe it's a good Scripture to read and meditate on when we are going through the hard stuff that life often sends our way.
I'm praying that you will find Scriptures here, or even on your own to radically energize your praise life. Imagine being on fire for God, just being thankful and aware of His glory each and every day. Imagine looking for more and more reasons to praise Him...coming to a new level of awareness of how very deserving He is. I want to go there! I want to be lifted out of the ordinary, out of the miry despair of being bogged down by the mundane concerns and annoyances of this world to a place where my heart sees God's love and touch on every string of my life tapestry. I want to come to the place that even if my heart is broken by living in a broken world, I will still see my Savior's heart and be able to praise through my tears, not for the circumstances but for the knowledge that He is going to turn disaster into blessing, and that His love will never fail me even in the darkest of days. I think learning to praise consistently, often, always will bring us to that place.
Oh Lord, teach us this! Make it happen in our lives! No matter what happens here on this earth, the words from Ephesians are true and steadfast....our lives, our eternity is secure. You are faithful God! Your are worthy of all our praise and thanksgiving. You never change! Lord, forgive my complaining, forgive my mistrust....turn my ingratitude and bratty-ness into praise, thanksgiving and worship. You love is higher than the mountains and Your faithfulness reaches to the sky....remind us often to trust Your heart---it never has bad in mind. Lord, You are good and do only good and think only good for us. Lord, I need to remember this. Fill our mouths with Your praise, our hearts with faith and our minds with determination. In Jesus' worthy Name. Amen
Spend time today with these Scriptures. Pray over them, speak them out loud. Keep the one from Ephesians handy for those times when all seems wrong to remind yourself of all that is right.
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