Image credit :Daniel Reche
A very good day to you all. With joy in my heart, i bring to you the benefits of praising and worshiping God, but not just when things are going in the right direction for you, but also when things never seem to go as planned for you.
In the world today, especially in the Christian faith, people are more obligated to praise and worship God when they are the receiver of God's blessings. People never find out time in their pains to praise God. An average Christian would probably use 5 minutes out of his/her 30 minutes of prayer, just to praise God, but when making a requesting from God, the prayers never seem to end.
Christians fail to realize that, the more you praise God, instead of making endless request, the more your prayers gets answered. what exactly do you intend to request from a God, who knows you even before you were born? what could you possibly be telling him that he does not know about.
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Paul and silas was locked up, because they were carrying out the preaching of the word of God, while in prison instead of requesting that God should save them from the hands of their captors, they worship God, they praise his name, they dance and worship him and what happened? Heaven responded to their worship and they where set free. you think God isn't aware they were locked up, but they decided to worship God even in prison. Mind you, they never prayed to be free, But the almighty father responded swiftly.
Acts 16: 22-28 (NIV)
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
With the story of Paul and silas, you'll realize the power of praise and worship and not making a request.
Another person in the Bible who gave us an insight of the benefits of praise and worship, was King David. Why did we think, David was called a man after God's heart?
David from the onset, was not what you call a fully devoted Christian, you can't compare the life of David with the life of any of the apostles or disciples, or even any of the prophets. David had his wrongs and bad times, God made sure he paid for it. David was a womanizer among other things he did in the bible. But what melts God's heart when it comes to David was the act of him running back to God after realizing he did something wrong, repenting from that sin, never doing it again. Another act David potrayed was the act of praising God and worshiping him. David is responsible for the book of Psalm in the Bible, and that's why the book is filled with praise for God.
David realize that praising God is something so important that he could not get over, realizing this, God loved David so much. Even after every sin, God always forgave David and blessed him. God never allowed the sins of David to go unanswered, he made sure David face the consequences, that's why, David was almost killed by people close to him. God made the act of trying to kill David a reality, but also made it impossible for David to die.
1 samuel 19: 9-10 (NIV)
9 But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.
In the above passage in the Bible, you can see, even God was responsible for sending an evil spirit into saul, to kill David, and still made it impossible for David to die. That's what you call "God working in mysterious ways".
Below is one of my favorite Psalm of David, praising God.
Psalm 145 (NLT)
I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever. 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness. 4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power. 5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles. 6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness. 7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness. 8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9 The Lord is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation. 10 All of your works will thank you, Lord,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
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There was a particular moment i was in a particular church, here in Edo state, Nigeria. All they kept doing was making endlessly request to God. Telling God to protect them from the hands of the evil ones, God should provide this and that, God Should do this and that. What do you think you can tell God that he's not aware of? he made the universe and everything inside it. He made time, he made even the air we breath.
Right there, i felt the need to praising God more than we ask. He deserves the praise, because that's the only thing we could give to him. He can't be fed because he's above human existence, you can't give him money or build him a house or any of our humanly possesssion. Even your tithe is used by your pastor, according to fulfilling God's work on earth. The only thing that goes straight to heaven and straight to the throne of God is praise and worship.
THE BENEFITS OF CONSTANTLY PRAISING AND WORSHIPING GOD.
• Nothing moves God more than when you praise him.
•Heaven respond faster and request are been answered, even before they are made.
•God can not be given physical or material things, because he's above our existence, but give him praise and worship, and it goes straight to his throne, because that can't be giving to human.
•Praising and worshiping God, proves that, you are more into exalting his name, even more than your predicament. And because he's all merciful and powerful, he makes everything just and perfect for our sake.
•Praising and worshiping God makes the devil powerless towards you, because that's when Godsm take charge and His Glory is decleared by the heavens.
•The angels in heaven knows the important of praising and worshiping God, that's why the bible always tell us, the seraphim and cherubim are always in his presence, singing and praising his holy name.
•In the old testament, according to the 10 commandments given to moses by God, He even stated the important of prasing him and worshiping him, when he said. "Thou shall not worship any graven image". And God said that because, worship and praises are for him alone and no one else.
King Solomon was another person who kept the duty of worshiping and praising God among others. Solomon was said to have given the highest sacrifice to God, in the old days, because he knew, God deserve every bit of praise and worship.
2 chronicle 6: 14-15 (NLT)
14 He prayed,
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. 15 You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today.
Finally, I'd like to draw to a conclusion that, God deserve evey bit of our praise and worship more than any other thing we think we could actually give to God. He has everything and nothing humanly possible can we give to God, except praise and worship.
May the good lord, grant us a clean heart and strength to always praise and worship him, more than we could ever imagine, because only then, will the throne of God be moved for our sake faster than we expect.
God bless you.
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