Raise the Praise Anyway

Have you ever been in church and not felt like praising God? I admit that I have felt this way at different times in my Christian journey. Sometimes it’s because I’ve had a difficult week and I’m worn out. At other times, I’ve felt that God isn’t listening to me and I’ve felt abandoned.

Sometimes we feel like hypocrites praising God when our hearts aren’t right. We think that God doesn’t want or need to hear our feeble attempts to praise Him. However, it’s just the opposite—God wants to hear from His children regardless of how we feel.

When we begin to praise Him despite our circumstances or how we feel, something begins to happen on the inside of us. We can sense of breaking of the resistance to praise God. It doesn’t necessarily happen right away. We can find ourselves warming up to praise as we listen to the words of worship and scripture.

Our praise to God is for Him and not for other people. They may not understand the struggles in our hearts and lives—but God does. He knows when we’ve pressed our way into church when we really wanted to stay at home. He understands when we feel abandoned, but His promise is firm that He will never leave nor forsake us.

If we raise the praise to God in spite of our feelings and circumstances, we begin to see our situation as God sees it. As a result, we feel less overwhelmed and more at peace with God and within ourselves. Another change happens within us—spiritual maturity. We learn to love and praise the Lord because we recognize He is good even if our circumstances are not good.

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to push past my feelings and circumstances to see You high and lifted up in praise and worship. In Jesus’ name, amen.

In His Service,

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