Luke 11:1 – “Now Yeshua was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Master, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” TLV

I want to continue this look at the Power of Praying and the Power and Purpose of Praise in Prayer.  Let us consider three ways to Praise the Lord.

Praise Can Be and Often Needs to be In Your Own Words.    

Use your own vocabulary.  If you feel comfortable and are helped by using King James English, go ahead, but I believe it would be powerfully beneficial to use your own words in expressing your Praise to God.  Let me give you some passages that may be beneficial.

Luke 1:46 – “Then Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies, Adonai.”

Psalm 34:1-3 – “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  ² My soul will make its boast in the Lord; the humble will hear it and rejoice.  ³ Exalt the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

Psalm 35:28 – “And my tongue shall proclaim Your righteousness and Your praise all day long.”

Psalm 51:15 – “Lord, open my lips, So that my mouth may declare Your praise.”

We are bragging on God!  It will not help Him nor make Him more than He is but will elevate Him in our sight.  It will help us!  All of us enjoy compliments, don’t we?  Bragging about God will help us see Him differently and more favorably.  We need to magnify the LORD!  We cannot make Him bigger than He is, but we can allow Him to become bigger to us than we have seen Him before.  To magnify is to increase out of true proportion. With God that is impossible, but it helps us to see Him greater than we have seen Him before.  It is a benefit to us!

The more I praise God and attempt to find words to describe Him, the more I see the Greatness of God.  He becomes larger and larger in my heart, mind, soul, and spirit.  Therefore, I believe that telling God how Great He is in our own words enables us to embrace His Greatness more powerfully.

We Can Praise God Through the Psalms. 

The Book of Psalms is the songbook of the Bible.  Almost every Psalm has one or more passages of Praise and Magnification for the LORD. 

I suggest that you read them, get them in your spirit and mind, and it may be beneficial to memorize them.  I like to read them aloud and personalize them.  I say them from my heart to God as though I was the author of that Psalm. 

We Can Praise God, Through Music. 

I am not speaking of singing in the choir or congregational singing, but from your knees, as you worship Him through your singing, or just walking around focusing on Him a son rings out! I often sing aloud and at times I sing in my mind even when I am in a crowd.

I know that today’s Christians have abandoned the old hymns, but I find myself singing them.  I sing songs like ‘Revive Us Again.’  “We praise thee O God for the Son of Thy Love, for Jesus who died and is now gone above.” 

Think about that.  We are praising God for Jesus and the incredible Gift and act of Grace and Mercy through which He brought salvation to us.  We focus on the reality that Jesus was not born of the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, but he was the result, the product, and the fruit of God’s Incredible Love!

We are praising God for Jesus and focusing on the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and what it means to us.  We are focusing on His Promise to Come Again.  We are focusing on Heaven, Eternity, the Bible, and the Blood of Jesus.  We are emptying ourselves of ourselves and focusing on Him and His incredible Salvation.

The next verse is incredible, “We praise Thee O God, for the Spirit of Light, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.”  Hallelujah!  No wonder the words, “Hallelujah, Thine be the Glory, Hallelujah, Amen!” are part of the song.  Sing songs of Praise to God!

I want to move another step into this consideration but will pause here.  Until tomorrow…

“May the LORD bless you and keep you as you go through this day!”