Hosanna Restoration Church

Personally, I can’t quite imagine not feeling like praising the Lord! The very thought of the Lord should start praise in our heart. Praise can and will change the direction of our thinking. It may take an effort, but it is an effort worth making.

Sacrifices were the offerings the Lord required, and the people wanted to make sure they made them. They depended on the priest to offer them correctly. The people could only bring the required sacrifice and pray for the priest and give thanks when it was done.

Today, we get to bring the sacrifice ourselves. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. When we drop our pride and offer our heart and ask God for a willing spirit to sustain us, He is satisfied.

Offering praise to the Lord is not doing Him a favor, it is doing ourselves a favor. Recently we discussed things like considering in our hearts how wonderful God is. We also talked about rebooting and buffering, and how we do whatever we can to get those videos going or the mail to work. Sometimes we just have to shut things down and start over.

These are pictures of the effort we should be willing to make and take in order to experience the presence of God working in our lives.

Sometimes people will say that they just don’t feel God like they once did. I always say that God has not changed! Other times people will say that they don’t want to fake it. We fake a lot of things, but we really can’t fake praising God. We might have to work our way into it. We might need a jump start, or we may need to grind the engine a bit before it turns over. After all, we may be spending a lot of time in the cold instead of keeping it running.

I can remember starting cars in the night in order to make sure they would start again in the morning. We would do whatever we had to do. When it is really cold, you can see hundreds of trucks sitting and running while the drivers sleep. I think you get the picture; we are willing to do whatever it takes so that things work. Why then, shouldn’t we be willing to praise God until we can’t help but praise Him.

Don’t let the devil tell you not to praise God unless you really feel like it. The truth is, if you are born again child of God, you do feel like it. It may be buried under disappointment or bitterness or some other thing, but we cannot rob God or rob ourselves by refusing to bring God the praise He deserves. We were all created to praise. We all have what it takes in us to give God the praise and the glory due His name. He is worthy and you are able. You can do it. I can feel it starting. Got to go. PRAISE THE LORD!