I don’t know about you, but more often than not I get more impact out of a few phrases, or one sentence, than I do an entire sermon. Sometimes, God puts us in a place to hear words that He knows will shake us up, or bless us, or cause us to look deep into our hearts and search our souls. That happened to me recently and I have been awakened to a very important truth.
I have often written of the fact that one of the key elements of healing that I learned to employ when going through difficult, heart breaking events, was to “praise through the pain.” For me, doing so was a deliberate effort to find something, anything, that I could grab on to that would stimulate feelings of gratitude and blessing, in the midst of darkness and despair. I knew that finding those things would lift my spirit enough to see light glimmering above, and hope that the darkness would not overcome. I guess you could say that I “counted my blessings.” I truly believe that by going through a deliberate exercise in gratitude, exemplified by the act of praise, even though praise seemed to be the farthest thing from my heart and mind, was the soothing balm that healed a wounded spirit.
God has not been content to allow my understanding of these things to stop with that revelation. With God, there is no end to the richness of his teaching. Although my utterances of gratitude were certainly sincere and heartfelt, He showed me that so much of what I found to be grateful for rested in what He had done for me. I know this is a stretch, but just suppose I couldn’t identify any such blessings … anything God had done for me? Would I have been able to praise Him even so?
It was the last day of the spring semester of the women’s Bible study, and as is customary, we were having a brunch. A young woman volunteered to share a brief testimony about how she had been ministered to during the session. As part of her testimony, she told us a story about something that absolutely turned her concept of praise upside down. Now, bear with me, not having the actual transcript, the following is a rough paraphrase of what she said:
A friend of mine asked me to watch a video of _________ (Christian musician, but I do not recall his name). He had gone to Africa and was amazed at the fervency and authenticity of the worship he observed among those very poor African people. He puzzled about it, wondering how it is that folks that have so many difficult things to deal with, folks that don’t have cushy lives, folks that routinely have to deal with horrific circumstances, could offer up such pure, heartfelt worship? He prayed and asked God, “What is it? Why can they praise so freely and fervently?”
God spoke to his heart and said, “In America, people praise me for what I do … for how I bless them … for what they have been given. Here, these folks praise me just because I AM.”
Just let that marinate for a few.
Those words struck me hard and fast. Gratitude for this and that, for blessings, for positive circumstances, for stuff … it’s a good thing to have, but if at the end of the day that’s the only thing we find in our hearts to praise God for, we have totally missed it. I think most of us have, indeed, missed it. I imagine that’s why when things in our lives go south … when something bad happens … when there’s some tragedy or unexplainable circumstance … when we have to work hard and dig deep to find some reason to lift up our hands and offer our praise, many of us choose to blame, question, and get angry with God instead.
Why did God let this happen? Why didn’t God do something to prevent it? God has not dealt fairly, or justly!! God has much to answer for!! How can He be a loving God if He willingly lets this sort of thing happen!? Praise?…Praise?… How can I praise God?! I don’t even want to think about Him right now … IF He’s even real!! I know that at least some of those kinds of sentiments and questions have rattled around in my head from time to time, and I certainly have heard such things come from other folks too.
Let me be clear so there’s no misinterpretation here … I think grieving is perfectly natural and God ordained. I even think God understands when we get upset with Him, and I believe He’d rather we be honest and transparent with Him. We see in the Psalms where David also did not hold his tongue when questioning God about the difficulties he was facing. In Psalm 6 David is clearly not doing well:
1 LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint;
heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, LORD, how long?
4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
At the darkest times of my life I can say that I felt exactly like David did. He didn’t hold back; He told God exactly how he was feeling and what his struggles were. Jesus did too. He cried out to His Holy Father, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Likewise, I do not think God is offended when we spill our hearts before Him and call upon Him for help. Sometimes those feelings pour out sounding sad, grief stricken, utterly lonely and depressed. At other times they come out sounding angry, indignant, hurt, frustrated. No matter, you might as well spill it because He already knows it’s in there! But then what? …
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
FAITH. Believing God for who He is. That doesn’t necessarily demonstrate itself with a big smile plastered on our face, though at times it may, but more than likely it is demonstrated, not only by showing one’s gratitude for what has been done, or given, but mostly by steadfast faith that HE IS GOD, that HE IS TRUSTWORTHY, and that HE IS DESERVING OF PRAISE NO MATTER WHAT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE.
That’s what Jesus did. When faced with a horrific execution based on trumped up charges, when spat upon by the same folks He was dying for, when rejected by his own Holy Father as he took upon himself the guilt of our sins … Jesus willingly accepted all those terrible things, knowing, trusting, believing that The Father would bring resurrection, restoration, renewal, healing, and deliverance. Christ’s dedication to his Father went beyond his circumstances, and rested on the foundation of faith in The I AM.
Can our temporary trials and difficulties, periods of grief and episodes of despair even begin to compare to what our dear Lord faced on that dark day? And yet, even as Jesus felt abandoned by His Father, we often feel like God has forgotten us, left us to wander in the darkness of a terrible situation. Surely He has not. Even as God, through the resurrection of His Son, brought beauty from ashes, light from darkness, and hope from despair, He can do the same thing every time we die to ourselves and put our faith and trust in Him.
So, yes, absolutely take the time every single day to find reasons to be grateful … I believe it makes God smile when we do that, and I believe it can be very instrumental in helping us through very difficult, heart breaking situations. Don’t let that be the primary stimulation for putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3), but rather let those things just add to a spirit of praise that already exists because He is the I AM, and is therefore deserving of praise. Let us walk away from this mentality that it is all about “me” and what God does for me that gives me reason to praise Him. If your situation is so grim that all you see is darkness, and you cannot find even one blessing to count … He is still GOD, He still gave HIS ONLY SON, He is still GREATER THAN ANYTHING OR ANYONE IN ALL OF HISTORY, HE IS OUR CREATOR and He is to be PRAISED, and we can TRUST HIM TO BRING RESURRECTION.
I have often written of the fact that one of the key elements of healing that I learned to employ when going through difficult, heart breaking events, was to “praise through the pain.” For me, doing so was a deliberate effort to find something, anything, that I could grab on to that would stimulate feelings of gratitude and blessing, in the midst of darkness and despair. I knew that finding those things would lift my spirit enough to see light glimmering above, and hope that the darkness would not overcome. I guess you could say that I “counted my blessings.” I truly believe that by going through a deliberate exercise in gratitude, exemplified by the act of praise, even though praise seemed to be the farthest thing from my heart and mind, was the soothing balm that healed a wounded spirit.
God has not been content to allow my understanding of these things to stop with that revelation. With God, there is no end to the richness of his teaching. Although my utterances of gratitude were certainly sincere and heartfelt, He showed me that so much of what I found to be grateful for rested in what He had done for me. I know this is a stretch, but just suppose I couldn’t identify any such blessings … anything God had done for me? Would I have been able to praise Him even so?
It was the last day of the spring semester of the women’s Bible study, and as is customary, we were having a brunch. A young woman volunteered to share a brief testimony about how she had been ministered to during the session. As part of her testimony, she told us a story about something that absolutely turned her concept of praise upside down. Now, bear with me, not having the actual transcript, the following is a rough paraphrase of what she said:
A friend of mine asked me to watch a video of _________ (Christian musician, but I do not recall his name). He had gone to Africa and was amazed at the fervency and authenticity of the worship he observed among those very poor African people. He puzzled about it, wondering how it is that folks that have so many difficult things to deal with, folks that don’t have cushy lives, folks that routinely have to deal with horrific circumstances, could offer up such pure, heartfelt worship? He prayed and asked God, “What is it? Why can they praise so freely and fervently?”
God spoke to his heart and said, “In America, people praise me for what I do … for how I bless them … for what they have been given. Here, these folks praise me just because I AM.”
Just let that marinate for a few.
Those words struck me hard and fast. Gratitude for this and that, for blessings, for positive circumstances, for stuff … it’s a good thing to have, but if at the end of the day that’s the only thing we find in our hearts to praise God for, we have totally missed it. I think most of us have, indeed, missed it. I imagine that’s why when things in our lives go south … when something bad happens … when there’s some tragedy or unexplainable circumstance … when we have to work hard and dig deep to find some reason to lift up our hands and offer our praise, many of us choose to blame, question, and get angry with God instead.
Why did God let this happen? Why didn’t God do something to prevent it? God has not dealt fairly, or justly!! God has much to answer for!! How can He be a loving God if He willingly lets this sort of thing happen!? Praise?…Praise?… How can I praise God?! I don’t even want to think about Him right now … IF He’s even real!! I know that at least some of those kinds of sentiments and questions have rattled around in my head from time to time, and I certainly have heard such things come from other folks too.
Let me be clear so there’s no misinterpretation here … I think grieving is perfectly natural and God ordained. I even think God understands when we get upset with Him, and I believe He’d rather we be honest and transparent with Him. We see in the Psalms where David also did not hold his tongue when questioning God about the difficulties he was facing. In Psalm 6 David is clearly not doing well:
1 LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint;
heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, LORD, how long?
4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
At the darkest times of my life I can say that I felt exactly like David did. He didn’t hold back; He told God exactly how he was feeling and what his struggles were. Jesus did too. He cried out to His Holy Father, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Likewise, I do not think God is offended when we spill our hearts before Him and call upon Him for help. Sometimes those feelings pour out sounding sad, grief stricken, utterly lonely and depressed. At other times they come out sounding angry, indignant, hurt, frustrated. No matter, you might as well spill it because He already knows it’s in there! But then what? …
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
FAITH. Believing God for who He is. That doesn’t necessarily demonstrate itself with a big smile plastered on our face, though at times it may, but more than likely it is demonstrated, not only by showing one’s gratitude for what has been done, or given, but mostly by steadfast faith that HE IS GOD, that HE IS TRUSTWORTHY, and that HE IS DESERVING OF PRAISE NO MATTER WHAT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE.
That’s what Jesus did. When faced with a horrific execution based on trumped up charges, when spat upon by the same folks He was dying for, when rejected by his own Holy Father as he took upon himself the guilt of our sins … Jesus willingly accepted all those terrible things, knowing, trusting, believing that The Father would bring resurrection, restoration, renewal, healing, and deliverance. Christ’s dedication to his Father went beyond his circumstances, and rested on the foundation of faith in The I AM.
Can our temporary trials and difficulties, periods of grief and episodes of despair even begin to compare to what our dear Lord faced on that dark day? And yet, even as Jesus felt abandoned by His Father, we often feel like God has forgotten us, left us to wander in the darkness of a terrible situation. Surely He has not. Even as God, through the resurrection of His Son, brought beauty from ashes, light from darkness, and hope from despair, He can do the same thing every time we die to ourselves and put our faith and trust in Him.
So, yes, absolutely take the time every single day to find reasons to be grateful … I believe it makes God smile when we do that, and I believe it can be very instrumental in helping us through very difficult, heart breaking situations. Don’t let that be the primary stimulation for putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3), but rather let those things just add to a spirit of praise that already exists because He is the I AM, and is therefore deserving of praise. Let us walk away from this mentality that it is all about “me” and what God does for me that gives me reason to praise Him. If your situation is so grim that all you see is darkness, and you cannot find even one blessing to count … He is still GOD, He still gave HIS ONLY SON, He is still GREATER THAN ANYTHING OR ANYONE IN ALL OF HISTORY, HE IS OUR CREATOR and He is to be PRAISED, and we can TRUST HIM TO BRING RESURRECTION.
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