Coupled with prayer in our mountaintop agendas is the equally important need for praise. “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy” (Psalm 99:9). While prayer is the time we spend sharing our thoughts and desires with God, praise is the time we spend exalting God and declaring his holiness.
Though God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he is so big and so multifaceted that he can appear to us new every morning. On the days when our hearts are broken and our tears blur our vision, God is our Abba Father, our Daddy, who wraps us up in his arms and lets us cry on his shoulder. When we trip over temptation and land in the pits of sin, God is Mercy as he extends to us a hand of grace. He is our provider, our comforter, our healer, our protector, and so much more. He is our everything!
We worship God and praise him simply by acknowledging who he is. In that way, he makes it remarkably easy for us to worship him because he is so wonderful!
Granted, there are times when we’re mad at God. We’re frustrated that he hasn’t given us our deepest desires – a husband, a job, children, health – and through our anger it’s not quite as easy to worship him. But the truth remains that God’s holiness is not dependent upon our happiness. And he is worthy of our worship because of who he is, not because of what he has or hasn’t done yet.
Jephthah’s daughter had plenty of excuses not to worship God. A broken heart. Broken dreams. Broken spirit. But despite her crummy circumstances, I’m sure that she brought her tambourine – her instrument of praise – with her to the mountains anyway. It’s easy to worship and praise and sing to God when all is going according to our master plan. But genuine worship is not convenient worship. It’s constant worship.
Q: Your God is waiting for you to meet him at the mountains. Think of a place that you can go right now to be alone with him. Go there – to your very own mountain – and spend some time in prayer and praise with God. Read Psalm 63 to begin your prayer and Psalm 66 to begin praising him.
Taken from Who Has Your Heart?, © 2006 by Emily E. Ryan. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501. All rights reserved. www.dhp.org
I have to admit that it took me a pretty long time to “”understand”” that I was yet called to ?Thank God? when I was in a valley. How could I when my best friend & only 1st cousin had passed away & I’d literally gotten in my closet to pray him well yet he died? At first I was angry at myself. I’d failed because I hadn’t prayed right or long enough…..this was my aunts only son & I was trying to show her the love of God….yet her son died…almost a year to the date of his passing, I was going down the road with my 3 precious children. Radio playing & on the way to t-ball practice the thought of my cousin was FAR from my mind. But out of the blue this thought slammed into my mind…..””your children are not your own”” WHAT!!!!!!
Where did THAT come from? I Reached over, turned the volume up & kept going. BLAM! This time louder, the thought slammed into me again. At that point I had to pull over as I was crying at the very thought of losing one of them…..then I got stopped & began to sob as I realized the message was from my very loving God. TRULY my kids weren’t mine, they were HIS but on loan to me as very precious gifts. I’d been mad at God & confused. But It was at that moment a peace flooded my very soul & song began to fill me up with praise & worship ……..God’s SON, my Jesus. Reconciled. Song has been a part of my life throughout ALL my valleys & mountains…..I mourned my aunt through song as she passed from this world but gave glorious praise through song for her coming to know Christ “”&”” that because of a PRECIOUS SON, our Jesus, I will see her again……smiling & probably signing too.
Thnk You Father God.