Worthy To Be Praised

If I only gave God praise when I felt like it, He would be one abandoned and lonely God. In the midst of the ongoing trial in my life, I have had to learn to say “God is the God of my head pain.” I have had to learn to give Him praise in the face of my ongoing pain because if I waited until I felt no pain or I felt good in order to give Him praise, than God would be still be waiting for me to open up my mouth. I have had to learn to seek His face despite the the pain I am feeling. The apostle Paul found himself in a similar situation in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8. He served God whole heartedly with a thorn in his side. Now, scripture is not explicit on what that thorn was exactly, but I tend to personally think that it was some form of physical pain, something that was chronic so that it was a continual reminder to Paul. He had asked God to take it from him but the Lord would not. Paul had to learn to worship God in the midst of his pain!

We all face times when we do not feel like giving praise to God. Some of us might be able to come up with some very convincing arguments as to why we can’t praise the Lord right now. But what we need to remember is that we should not praise God because we feel like it, we should give God praise because He is worthy to be praised. Just because we are facing a difficult situation does not mean God is any less worthy of our praises. In fact, it is in the midst of the hard times that our sacrificial praises will break down the walls of our heart and allow us to see the Lord face to face. It is in the moments that we feel like walking away and giving up that the praises flowing from our lips will heal much more than just the mere situations we find ourselves in. The Lord is so much more interested in healing our hearts and forming our character than He is in rescuing us from our struggles. Let’s face it, it is only by traveling a difficult road that the character of God can be worked out in our lives and praise is the vehicle God uses to to usher His character into our hearts, especially when we praise Him in the midst of our trials! 

Example of Abraham

If we look at the individuals in the Bible, they were not handed the heart of God on a silver platter. They had to work for it. They had to struggle through some things. It had to be built into their lives. The character of God did not come automatically or by pushing a button, nor did it come over night. It took time for God’s character to be worked out. It took some deep times of praise flowing from their lips in the midst of adversity to see these things come about. Let’s look at Abraham as our first example. From the time Abraham was promised his son Isaac until that day finally came to pass, 25 years elapsed. In that time Abraham struggled with doubting God’s promise was going to ever take place. He doubted so much so that he took matters into his own hands by lying with another woman. Abraham’s inpatients and doubting did not change the fact that God was worthy of praise nor did it change the fact that God was going to fulfill His word. Abraham was named the the father of faith and make no mistake, he was not given that name without a cost attached to it. The cost of praising and trusting God in the hard times, the cost of laying his one and only son on the alter was the reason Abraham was able to carry this name.

Example of Joseph

Joseph was another person who had to wait for the character of God to be built in his life before the promise could come to pass. He was 17 years old when he had dreams that God was going to use him greatly. But then he spent the next 22 years in training until he saw those dreams come to pass. The road to fruition of those dreams was riddled with it’s fare share of adversity. Joseph was sold into slavery, falsely accused of a crime he did not commit and imprisoned for that very crime. Yet the adversities that Joseph faced did not make the Lord any less worthy of Joseph’s praise nor did the time that elapsed mean that God was any less capable of fulfilling His word. The Lord took the perfect amount of time to work out in Joseph’s heart the character that was needed for the day that Joseph would come face to face with his brothers once again. It is quite clear when Joseph meets his brothers that he had spent an immense amount of time praising God in those 22 years. For if he had not, it would clearly have shown up on that day.  If God had not worked out in Joseph’s heart His character, I am quite sure that Joseph would have had his brothers killed, or at the very least sent them away to fend for themselves in the day of famine. But since God had taken His time with Joseph, it allowed compassion to grow in his heart toward his brothers rather than anger and frustration. 

How much different would these Bible stories have turned out if these men would have gotten frustrated with the dealings of God in their lives and in their frustration walked away from God’s plan? What would have happened if they stopped giving God the praise He is worthy of? What would have happened if they only praised God when things were going perfect for them? I can only guess that their hearts would not have been in the right place to receive the blessings that God had promised them. The struggles that these men faced were necessary in order to prepare their hearts to receive the blessings of God. We can be certain that these men kept their hearts in a place of continual praise because the blessings of God flowed out in abundance on their lives and the lives of the generations that came after them.  

We are no different then Abraham and Joseph. God wants us to praise Him not only in the good times, but more importantly in the times of hurt, frustration, pain, trial, tribulation, strife, struggle and turmoil. Our situations in no way reflect God’s worthiness to be praise. God is worthy to be praised whether we are on the mountaintop or in the valley of the shadow of death. God is not “good” in the times of abundance and blessing and “bad” in the times trouble and hardship. God does not change just because our situations change. 

When we praise in the hard times, it allows God to work out His character in our hearts in order to prepare us for the promises yet to come. When we do not praise God in the midst of our challenges the character of God can not be worked out in us and when the promises show up we will find ourselves ill equipped for what is placed before us, or worse yet, we can not receive the promises at all because we are not prepared for them.

Lord, we thank you that you are not worthy of praise based upon our situation. Help us to remember that you are worthy of praise whether we are on the mountaintop or in the valley of the shadow of death. You are worthy of praise no matter what situation we find ourselves in. Help us not to see you as “good” when things are going well and “bad” when our lives seem to be in turmoil. Help us not to only give you praise when we feel like it, but help us to praise you in all things because you are worthy to be praised. We thank you that you are working in us your character each and every day. Continue to have your way in our hearts and lives in Jesus mighty name.