“Praising with Thanksgiving” – Week 2
By Brenda V. Hess, Area Women’s Ministries President, Western Europe, Mediterranean & Middle East

What separates believers from mediocre Christians and Christians who are truly enthusiastic about their faith? A very simple thing: the habit of praising God daily.

The psalmist said, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name” (Psalms 100:4, NIV).

There is something very special when we come into the presence of God with a heart of praise and thanksgiving. Not asking for anything. Not looking for anything. Not with any other motive except praise. God desires and deserves our praise. But, most important, we need the experience of praising Him.

The Lord’s Prayer begins and ends with praise. When we give praise to God, it helps us to understand just how awesome He really is! We should praise Him for how powerful He is; for how giving He is; for how loving He is; and thank Him for all that He has done in the past and for all that He is presently doing for us.

When we wake each morning, we need to praise God for another day. When things are very difficult in our life, we need to offer praise for a shelter from the storm. When things are rushed and stressful, we need to offer praise to God for our work and our ministry. When good things happen, we need to stop and praise God for His goodness to us. Every day of our life, we should praise God for our family and friends. We can praise God as we drive in traffic, or at our desk, or as we do household chores.

Every one of us has so much for which to be thankful and praise God. Martin Luther once said: “We cannot give God anything; for everything is already His, and all we have comes from Him. We can only give Him praise, thanks and honor.”

Yet, how many times do we catch our self grumbling to the Father? How often we react toward God‘s blessings as Israel reacted to God in the wilderness—with grumbling and complaining. How we need the reminders of all that God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

We need to ask our self the following questions: “Do we want to feel that we have God’s full attention when we are praying? Do we want to let God know how much we appreciate everything He has done for us? Are we having difficulty hearing the voice of God?” Answering these questions and understanding the power of prayer require that we start our communion with God with praise! God lives in the praises of His people! If we want Him dwelling in our minds, we need to constantly praise Him in our minds. Tell Him how wonderful He is. Tell Him how awesome He is. Sing to Him. That is praise. If you have not been praising Him enough, try it—you will like it!

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