We bring the "Sacrifice" of Praise?

As one who enjoys praising God through song, it was somewhat of an enigma (at least to me) as to why we have a hymn in our books titled “We bring the sacrifice of praise”. (For those interested in checking it out, it’s number fifty four). It really didn’t make much sense to consider praise toward God as being a sacrifice. But after looking a little deeper into it, I wanted to share a couple of observations with you as to what I’ve learned. In the first place, the implication shows that this praise is a continual praise, which means we’re called to praise God at ALL times; in good times, bad times and in‐between times. It’s not much of a sacrifice to praise God when things are good, but let your life start unraveling at the seams and see how easy it is then! Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 4: 6f, “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in EVERY situation, (notice this…) by PRAYER and PETITION, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends ALL understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Thanksgiving involves praise!! Those things we allow ourselves to become anxious about seem to vaporize when we turn our attention to praising God through thanksgiving. So, the next time you work at justifying in your minds a reason to gripe or complain, pause long enough to pray and ask God to put a song in your heart. Once He presents you with a song, let it out!!! Sing that song back to your heavenly Father in thanksgiving for what He’s about to do for you. The more we praise, the less we complain and the easier our sacrifice of praise becomes much less of a sacrifice!

​Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin