Praise

How often do your prayers to God look like a cosmic shopping list rather than praise and thanksgiving? Or maybe you do include a 'praise time' but it's far outweighed by the 'please time'. I know that my prayers often end up like that.


Psalm 92:1-5 says 'It is good to praise the LORD 
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
  proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night, 
 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.

  For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
   I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

 How great are your works, LORD,
   how profound your thoughts!'

I read this in my quiet time yesterday and it struck me how little I praise the God who created me, who loves me, who died for me. The Psalmist here had the right idea, they start the day by praising God and end the day by praising God (vs 2). The thing is, we haven't really got a reason why not to praise God but we have got plenty of reasons to praise Him! I made a list the other day of everything I could think of, off the top of my head, that God has done for me this year. The list was pretty long and that didn't even include the smaller things that He does for me every single day! 

'When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”' Luke 19:37-40

How amazing is that? Being told that if the people stopped praising Jesus then the stones would cry out! To me that just shows me, even more so, how much Jesus deserves to be praised! Not only should we praise God because He deserves it but it also benefits us! It reminds us of how great God is, that in any situation we don't have to worry because God is greater than it!