Saturday, August 21, 2010

OFFERING SACRIFICE OF PRAISE CONTINUALLY - PART 2

Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name
Psalm 29:2

Let us praise God CONTINUALLY because it is His due. Should J-H-V-H be left unpraised? Praise is the rent that He asks of us for the enjoyment of all things. Will we be slow to pay? Will a man rob God? When it is such a happy work to give Him His due, will we deny it? It blesses us to bless the Lord. Will we stint God in the measure of His glory when He does not stint us His goodness? Come, if you have become sorrowful lately, shake off your gloom, and awake all your instruments of music to praise the Lord! Do not let murmuring and complaining be so as mentioned among His saints. Will not the Lord be CONTINUALLY praised? Surely the very stones and rocks must break their everlasting silence in indignation if the children of God do not praise His name.

Praise Him CONTINUALLY, for it will help you in everything. A man full of praise is ready for all other holy exercises. Even in times of pain and weakness he could still exalt the Lord (Psalm 34:1). Whenever you go to do any kind of service, even though it is nothing better than opening the shop or waiting behind the counter, you will do it all the better when you are in the spirit of praise and gratitude. If you are a domestic servant and can praise God CONTINUALLY, you will be a comfort in the house. If you are a master and are surrounded with the troubles of life, if your heart is always blessing the Lord, you will keep up your spirits and will not be sharp and ill-tempered with those around you

Praise will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it does not have time to find fault and grow proudly angry with people around us. Somebody has said a very nasty thing about us. Well, we will answer him when we have finished the work we have in hand, namely, praising God CONTINUALLY. At present we have a great work to do and cannot come down to wrangle. Self love and its natural irritations die in the blaze of praise. If you praise God CONTINUALLY, the vexations and troubles of life will be cheerfully borne. Praise makes the happy man a strong man. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Praising God makes us drink of the brook by the way and lift up our heads. We cannot fear while we can praise. Neither can we be bribed by the world’s favour, nor cowed by its frown. Praise makes angels of us. Let us abound to it.

Praise God because this is what God loves. Notice from Hebrews 13:15 how the next verse puts it: “With such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrew 13:16). Would we not do anything and everything to please God? It seems too good to be true that we can impart any pleasure to the ever-blessed One. Yet it is so, for He has declared that He is well-pleased with the praises and gifts of His children. Therefore let us withhold nothing from our dear Father, our blessed God. It will always be an honour to praise Him.

The final point -The verse Hebrews 13:15 reads, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise CONTINUALLY.” The apostle Paul did not say, “Eventually get to work, when you are able to give up business and have retired to the country, or perhaps when you are near death.” Rather, he said, NOW ‘let us offer the sacrifice of praise.’” When Paul wrote this, he was probably in a low place, in shackles and chains, shut up in a dungeon in Rome. Sure we who are not in prison and none of us are galled with shackles on our wrists can certain join Paul in praising God CONITNUALLY.

As His church and people, we have received great favors from the Lord's hand. Come, let us join together with heart and hand of the Lord and worship joyfully before Him. With words and gifts, let us offer the sacrifice of praise CONTINUALLY.
(an extract from : Spurgeon on Praise – The joy and rewards of praising God!)

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