Loved by the King...

Saturday, May 17, 2008

7 hours of spiritual time today!! there was holy spirit baptism class, service and jc pm which got a lil draggy HAHAH. learnt a GREAT deal today, really. pastor jeff's sermon touched me as usual, xiangyu and fungmin's teaching on hsb was a new lesson too, since i wasn't taught right previously hah. well but what matters is that i've learnt it right this time round:)
love the word of God.
great is God, no, GREATEST is HE.
exalt Him as He deserves, and love Him love Him love Him.

anyway here's something reallyreallyreally inspiring that i wanna share with the world!!!

Power In Your Praise

“Offer unto God thanksgiving (praise); and pay thy vows unto the most High and call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify Me” (Psalms 50:14-15).

We serve an Almighty God who is worthy of all our praise. The Bible says “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess His name” (Hebrews 13:15). It also says in Psalms 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.” This means praising God not only in church prior to the message, but continually. It should be a part of our lifestyle.

This is so important because when we praise Him, we acknowledge our faith and total trust in Him. In doing so, we invoke His omnipotent presence and power enabling His glory to fill our temple (us) and act on our behalf. It also helps us to look beyond our problems and see the promises of God.

Now, a very simple definition for praise is; a declaration of God’s goodness, who He is, His faithfulness, and what He has done. When this acknowledgement is made with our heart and spoken verbally, God is blessed and obliged to move. Psalms 22:3 states that God “inhabits our praise.” There are several illustrations of how God moved mightily based on the praise of His people:

Ø Paul and Silas were thrown in jail for preaching the gospel of Christ. Instead of complaining about the way they were beaten and tortured, they praised God with singing in the middle of the night. It was so powerful it changes their circumstances. God shook the prison, let them go, and caused the jailer to get saved. (Acts 16:19-31).

Ø King Jehoshaphat and the Kingdom of Judah were faced with certain annihilation by the armies of Ammon, Moab and Seir. However, after prayer and fasting, Jehoshaphat and the Kingdom of Judah praised God in the midst of their enemies, and “the Lord” caused the armies of Ammon, Moab and Seir to destroy each other. (2 Chronicles 20:1-23)

Ø Gideon defeated a huge Midianite Army with three hundred soldiers without even striking a blow with their swords. They simply praised God. They blew their trumpets and shouted “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon” and, the Midianites turned their swords on themselves, destroying each other. (Judges 7:19-22)

Give God praise! He is so worthy. He deserves all we have to give and so much more. Sincere praise from our heart is necessary to invoke God’s presence and omnipotent power in our lives. It should not be something that we do only at church, but a part of our daily lifestyle. It helps us to look beyond our problems and to see the promises of God.

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalms 42:11).

YESSSS!! praise God! for He is worthy and deserving! as i did my devotion someday the past week, i came across this verse:
(psa 144:15b) blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
AMENAMEN i'm such a blessed little kid!! i've got the God of all creation, the Maker of heaven and earth and all that's in it backing me up what more can i ask for! what could be better!
i realised also, how kind God has always been to me, only that i fail so often to see. thank You God for opening my eyes to see Your lovingkindness:) another thing i saw, was that the more difficult the challenge i face, the kinder God is to me! in times such as these, God simply reveals Himself to me in all His greatness and just fills my heart with hope, joy and thanksgiving. even if i had to traverse rough rocky terrain, make my way on valleys and mountains, strenous and painful that might be, God has and will always bless me in His special ways, big and little:) and that's simply fantastic. fellow christians would always encourage thanking God in bad circumstances. this may sound annoying to some who think that the mess they're in warrants no single blessing from God to be grateful and thankful for but truth is, we've got the GREATEST blessing we need!! we've God walking with us every step of that difficult way, carrying us upon His shoulders, only that we've allowed our problems to overshadow the presence of God in our lives, every minute of it. so yes!! be thankful in all circumstances as God's word has instructed, because that's just so true! i've tried and tested that and CHECK, that's the truth and nothing but the whole truth. following, i prayed for a grateful heart that heaps thanksgiving unto God all day and God has really answered my prayers and now my life's even better and more joyful than before mann!! hahahah YAYYY!!! here's a quotable quote from a really old edition of Our Daily Bread that i wrote in my little prayer slip:
the pain of disappointment is soothed by a heart of gratitude.
i testify to the truth of that statement with my life's experiences.

God has taught me an amazing lot the past week once again and boy am i grateful! i love how God's wondrous methods of loving ministers directly to my heart, i love the way He loves me:)
Daddy Daddy Daddy thank You for Your tender and perfect love. i love the way You love me, and i want to love You more:))

wc :: 9:41 PM