éloge

Isn’t it great to know that true praise, is praise in the midst of suffering. We tend to think of praise as something being sung in a building. An euphoric momentarily thing. To the contrary, in the book of psalms it is written: ps 119:164 Seven times a day I praise You for your righteous ordinances. Then in Hebrews 13: 15 it says. Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God.

What is a sacrifice? Something that cost you something. In a positive sense. It is almost like an experiential praise. Have you ever noticed that when you just came out of a difficult situation, and you gave praise to God, your praise was constituted with substance? Even better, we can praise God in the midst of our situation. When we praise God in the midst of un-pleasant times, it produces a faith in knowing that ‘all things work together for good for those who love God’ (rom 8:28). The beauty of our Lord Jesus is that in His sovereignty He uses circumstances to bring us to a place where we are shaped and able to bring a ‘sacrifice’ of praise.

I know in my own life it is the most difficult to praise the Lord when i am depressed, lonely or temporally unhappy. But the content of my praise in those times are much bigger and more sacrificial than when everything goes well.

In a sense it is only then true that we can ‘praise God continually’ (heb 13:15) , in the good times we can praise Him for His goodness and the bad times we can praise Him for His sovereign hand over us in using the bad times to shape us into praising people!