Bringing the Sacrifice of Praise

Something I have learned over the last few years is the importance and power of praising God amidst very difficult circumstances. It is easy to praise in spirit and song when you have no life or death matters that invade your thoughts as you try to focus on the Father. It is easy to praise when you are on stage leading worship. It is easy to praise when you consider what God has done for you and the promises that you see being fulfilled in your life.


It is much more difficult to praise when you are fighting fear. It is much more difficult to praise when your thoughts go to begging God to save you and your family. It is much more difficult to praise when you don't know why God has not yet responded to your acts of obedience, has not answered your prayers, and when others have suggested that this apparent wilderness in your life is because you haven't prayed hard enough, fasted long enough, or that there must be something spiritually that is wrong in your life for God to not respond to your dire situation.

When your spirit is crushed, when you don't know how to go on, when you are confused and angry...that is when it is difficult to praise. And that is when praise becomes your sacrifice.

Unlike many other forms of spiritual warfare and different acts of worship, praise brings us full circle to where we began and why we were created. God didn't create us so that He could save us. He didn't create us so that we could need Him. He didn't create us so that we could go forth and bring more people to Him. His purpose of creating us was so that we could commune with, honor and love Him. 

For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor.' (Jeremiah 13:11)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

When we bring a sacrifice of praise, we are praising Him for who He is. Not for anything He has done for us. Not for anything we are happy about. When brought as a sacrifice, praise moves from being an emotional response to an act of obedience. Biblically speaking, obedience is time and again upheld as our first responsibility to God, and the first thing we will do if we truly love Him. By bringing the sacrifice of praise, we are obeying Him with nothing for our own gain attached. It becomes simply about Him because of who He is.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

When you normally praise, it is a sacrifice in the sense of bringing a gift to God. But when you bring the sacrifice of praise, it is out of your complete brokenness and is because you are choosing to bring it, not because you have an abundance of good feelings to shave the top of. It's when you have nothing. The beautiful thing about it is that it's beautiful to God.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)

It seems that in the beginning of a wilderness period, we cling to the promises and look forward with vigor and hope. As time goes on, though, and weeks turn into months, months into a year, and one year into multiple years, we grow weary. We grow unsure. We grow scared.

 “Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?  And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’ ” (Malachai 3:13-15)

When it becomes the most unnatural to praise, let it be what you do. Let it be the sacrifice you bring. Esteem His name, for His response in Malachai is great.

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.  “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. (Malachai 3:16-17)

Choose to have your broken spirit be a vessel of praise, so that even when you are facing extreme circumstances, even when you have nothing left, even when you are confused or angry...even when your heart is far from God...you can offer the sacrifice of praise before your King. Praise Him through the battle.

And the Lord said:“Because these people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me,and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder." (Isaiah 29:13-14)

There is power in the sacrifice of praise.

(image credit to Cecil Porter)

How the Sabbath Changed Me

I didn't always observe the Sabbath. In fact, I was convicted to keep it for years before actually beginning the practice of honoring Shabbat. I grew up with Sunday as our day of worship, and when I began to feel convicted about keeping the Sabbath--on the actual Sabbath as I believe the Bible commands, I heard the justifications from many Christians of how it doesn't matter when we keep the Sabbath as long as we have a "day of rest". The thing is, I've had the traditional Sunday-Day-Of-Rest experience for almost my entire life. That wasn't what I was convicted of, nor what I understood from my reading, of what I was to do.

So I talked to my husband about it. More than a few times. Verbalizing my struggle, verbalizing my questions, allowing myself to process the fact that I was feeling like this was a big deal and that I was uncomfortable with doing it, and with not doing it. Finally, I decided I was going to do it.

Observing the Sabbath has changed me. At first, it was a struggle. I didn't know how I was going to manage not doing my regular work (laundry, dishes, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, homeschool prep, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning). What would happen to the house? What would happen to my sanity that was questionable anyway? Why do I feel selfish? How do I deal with feeling lazy (feelings not based on truth, but feelings, nonetheless)?

I slowly transitioned. First, implementing that on the Sabbath, I would study some Biblical topic of interest. Next, rushing to get my work down prior to sundown on Friday. This was followed by looking into what the flow of the Sabbath meal/service was to be. I printed document after document, watched YouTube videos, and did everything I could to learn what the burning flame in my soul was being called to do.

And then recently, a few months into this, I realized something. I am no longer eager to study a Biblical topic just on the Sabbath--I'm instead doing it all week long. I'm eager to share Biblical scholarly lectures with my children on our car rides, and to read entire books of the Bible at a time, with completely new insight than I ever had before. I'm less depressed. Less frantic.

I've learned that having that 24 hours from Friday through Saturday to continue my mindless cycle of never ending housework doesn't actually help me get anything done. I was so fearful of being "behind" a day, only to find that that day never helped me get ahead or behind to begin with. In fact, the opposite has happened. Because I'm not doing my "normal" work on Shabbat, I'm getting all of the other things "done" that I never had time for before. Research. Beautifying my house. Getting rid of accumulated piles of papers. Making gifts for my children. So many important things that I never got to before because they were always at the bottom of my list.

I've seen it change my children. They are so peaceful having a whole day to rest. We have a special Shabbat Box with toys, books, and videos that are only to be used on Shabbat. They are eager to light the candles, blow the shofar, receive specific blessings, break the bread, and talk about Shabbat every week. The tradition, meaning, and experience is something they look forward to, and as my daughter said, they "wish every day could be the Sabbath!"

I did not change for the Sabbath. The Sabbath changed me.

Isaiah 58:13-14

“Keep the Sabbath day holy.

Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,

but enjoy the Sabbath

and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day.

Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,

and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.

Then the LORD will be your delight.

I will give you great honor

and satisfy you with the inheritance

 I promised to your ancestor Jacob.

I, the LORD, have spoken!”

A borrowed thought on birthing without fear

I began cleaning out my blog subscription list tonight. The first one was deleted with no problem since the author hadn't posted anything in a year. Then, not recalling what the next blog was, I clicked on Heartbeat Photography...and fell in love. I have a soft spot for newborn and pregnancy photography. There is something magical and beautiful about it. This woman, wherever she is from and whomever she is, gets it. The moments she has captured are just that--magical and beautiful. What I want to share with you, is a paragraph that she wrote on the page who explains who she is as the artist behind the photos.

"Beyond capturing souls, hearts, smiles, bellies or little toes; I have discovered a great love for speaking, mentoring, and educating my fellow sisters in faith about their glorious bodies, swollen bellies, growing babies and the journey and miracle of bringing new life into the world. I educate, create, inspire, doula, midwife and walk 'with women' to help them and love on them as they fulfill our most amazing task: to bring forth the life that our God has created."

My favorite words from her, though, are this:

 "Women are the carriers of life. We hold the fruit of Christ's love beneath our hearts. Our curses have been taken by the blood of the lamb and we no longer need to serve fear, death, pain or torment. We are free. It is time we started to birth with the Faith that He has given us."

(http://ourheartsbeating.blogspot.com)