Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices. Read Hebrews 13:15-16.
A Sacrifice of Praise
We associate the word praise with goodness and good news. Praise for answered prayers. Praise for good behavior or a job well done. Praise for success. We praise God quickly when we get the answers we want. Praise comes a little harder in long seasons of waiting, in seasons of betrayal, in seasons of loss and hardship, illness, etc. God is worthy of our praise continually because he is the same good, merciful, and gracious God no matter what our circumstances are.
Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise…
When your heart is heavy like a stone in your chest because of the circumstance you are experiencing in the moment, it can be hard to offer up a sacrifice of praise. The phrase sacrifice of praise is fitting because it sometimes it is a sacrifice. Praise does not always cost us something but sacrifice always comes with a loss somewhere. To sacrifice causes a loss on one end to provide something on the other end. To praise God out of a hurting heart requires personal sacrifice. We must willfully lay our pain on the altar before a God we may not understand in the moment, and give him praise. We know in our heads, but our hearts are a mess. Praise opens that hurting heart and connects us with God. It says that we do trust him and give him adoration. We acknowledge that he is the sovereign God over our lives. We honor him with the honor he deserves, and our faith is strengthened.
When we hold onto that praise to God in difficult times it only makes those times harder. There is freedom in a sacrifice of praise. True worship to God involves complete surrender in that moment as well as in our whole lives. We cannot truly praise and connect with God if we are standing before him, arms full of all the broken pieces of our lives. We couldn’t literally lift our hands if that were the case, and we cannot lift our hearts without laying the broken pieces down at his feet. Worship even puts some of those pieces back together because singing praises to him is a healing balm for a heavy heart. And when we don’t have the strength, only through him – Jesus Christ - can we continually offer up a sacrifice of praise. When we give him a sacrifice of praise, we are choosing to trust him, to hope in him, to believe that even when life is not good, he still is and is always deserving of our praise.
… the fruit of lips that confess his name. Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
Praise is more than just showing up in church and singing a song. It is a whole mindset that is totally focused on him and spoken out to him, either in words or song. That praise is a confession to the rest of the world of who God is to us in the midst of all of life and everything it throws at us. While the praise portion of a church service ends, in our heart it keeps going in rhythm with a whole life of worship to him. Doing good and sharing are part of the rhythm as well. God is please when we give him a sacrifice of praise and when we live a life of worship, honoring him with praise in everything we say and do, which points others to him.
