Praise

P 2289 The art of speaking to your soul.

/ DVH

So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!” Psalms 42:11 TPT

Way back in the ark, eons ago … I had three small kids. The youngest, at two, often felt quite overwhelmed by the older kids. They could, temporarily, out-talk the youngest and out-smart and outrun the toddler as well. They could do practically everything better than the little one could. This situation caused the toddler quite a bit of angst and suffering. But the kid grew as children do, and eventually everyone had to run to keep up with them!

However at the time, with a list of things this child had to remember, this dear little person felt a tad overwhelmed. One day they had enough! Everybody seem to know better than this child did and have something else for them to do or learn. So the toddler ran into their bedroom distressed, and they threw themselves on their bed yelling all the way: “I’m the boss, I’m the boss, I’m the BOSS of my bed!“

We all kind of got the point instantly, and were a bit more considerate of this kid’s age after that – we realised that child was feeling quite powerless.  But in spite of all that a toddler figured out how to encourage itself!

Sometimes our own souls need reassurance and if none is forthcoming then we need to talk to ourselves, and do it positively. That negative stuff will do your head in. Self-sabotage is for the birds … and … they don’t like it either. 😂 Do yourself a favour, don’t shoot yourself in the foot, instead when we need to repent and repair things – do it. Then move on! This life has far better stuff to focus on than our failings. Somebody said it better than I can recently – “Don’t look back like Lot’s wife.” Great advice!

It is good to start telling yourself that setbacks are temporary, and mistakes are a part of this life. Bring to mind the sorts of Scriptures that build up your personal POV, instead of tearing it down. The fact that the Lord Jesus thought each one of us was worth dying for is enough to shift our focus away from whatever has been going on and put it firmly back under His supervision. He doesn’t love us because we get things right – He loves us because we are His!

Jesus’ own security was deeply rooted in the Father’s love for Him. His primary focus was always about ‘what was going to be good for the person in front of Him.’ It is not healthy for human beings to live with self-hatred and self criticism. That stuff leaks into other compartments and then it ends up coming out of our mouth unbidden – and suddenly we can find ourselves finding fault with other people all over the place.

We were not saved to become fault finders! Instead we are to be a God-given source of encouragement for many. At the same time, we need to actively practise being able to cheer ourselves up, despite our circumstances, by focussing on what the bible says about who we are in Christ..

This Psalmist knew the real secret of maintaining a healthy spiritual attitude – don’t just focus on yourself and your actions or feelings etc. watch and see what God is doing on your behalf. We can use our energy to make excuses for ourselves OR – we can admit our faults, confess them, make reparation and use our energy etc. to remember everything the Lord has done for us. That focus changes moods! We can encourage ourselves in the Lord, and modify our self- talk. Plus deliberately remind ourselves of His unfailing love and grace toward us. And I have found it useful to not just parrot off those words of loving hope – the secret is to let them sink in.

The fact that Jesus loves you and me, is extraordinary. HIS LOVE IS LIKE THE OCEAN! Bye 👋🏻

P 2265 Praise is a heavenly language.

/ DVH

Previously, there was a trend in Christianity to use the word “praise” almost like we would use a comma or a full stop. I don’t mean people weren’t genuine when they said praise the Lord etc., what I mean is the use of that phrase was tacked on the end of everything. as it can be. Praising God is not a punctuation mark. It’s joining in with His already established kingdom, by worshipping Him, and praising God for Who He is.

Praise comes easily when you are living aware of God simply because of Who He is. Who He is literally pulls out a response from us. But what happens when He’s not around and we are not aware of Him. Maybe instead we have had a lousy morning preparing to come to church. How do we praise him then? The Bible says that we can bring a sacrifice of praise into God’s house. This means we take our eyes off our suffering, pain and circumstances and deliberately focus on Who He is.

Praise is a way to enter the throne room. The bible says,  “enter His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise.” Thanksgiving and praise are key to preparing our hearts for worship. Thanksgiving is thanking Him for what He has already done, including saving us, and praise focuses on Who He is. I think we’ve become tangled up about the way thanksgiving, praise and worship work. I don’t want to speak about worship today and thanksgiving is fairly self explanatory.  Today I want to focus on praise. I think praise is essential. It shifts our focus away from ourselves and onto the Lord and His kingdom.

The point of praise is to make ourselves aware of Who He is. If my husband only loved me for what I did, I’d be sunk right now. I’m in bed with a broken shoulder and I can’t even pull my own pants up. Praise is ‘other’ person centred. And in this case, it is God-centred.

Praise is about proximity and focus. We move away from our earthly circumstances toward Him. Many of the Psalms were written as prompts for praise. I truly believe in reading out loud the bible so your own ears can hear it. We need to come out of our minds and thoughts into our spirits and shift our focus onto Who He is. I’m reminded of an old Wesleyan hymn – “And can it be that I should gain? An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?”

I am also aware that praise is not just singing, although we do have some lovely songs nowadays that open our hearts toward Him. However, I personally think there are way too many modern songs with ‘I, Me and Mine’ in them. Praise is where I choose to shift my focus away from ‘I, Me and Mine’ onto Him and Who He is. To do that we need to study the bible with a deliberate awareness of Who He is. Praise is also a faith statement – it tells our enemy that no matter what he threw at us before we arrived at church – our God is on His throne!

Father God does not need our praise, we praise Him to prepare our hearts to focus heavenward. I switch my focus from my needs onto Him. There is an often unseen benefit in doing this, my problems get smaller ‘and the things of earth shall grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.’ For a short while we stop being earthbound people having this battle and this difficulty and become children of the King and His greatness and grace enfolds. We must remember the Holy Spirit loves to praise God. So did Jesus!

Praise puts me on a journey that takes me outside of the influence and attack of the enemy.  The ‘hooks’ of despair, discouragement and fear weaken their hold on me because I have deliberately turned away from them and am walking towards the Greater One. Praise is a heavenly language. It bursts forth from hearts that know this life is not just about all the humdrum, awkward, difficult and unpleasant things we have to endure, our praise comes from a people who have fixed their eyes upon a goal, and that goal is to give Him what He deserves.

BTW for Spirit-filled people, praise is our new residential address. Our greatest power lies in our ability to focus on His kingdom more than the earthly one around us. 👋🏻

P 2097 Love will always win

/ DVH

“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection…” 1 John 4:18-19.

Whenever we recognise that we are afraid, we need to ask the Holy Spirit where it is we need to repent, and/or, where we need His healing love to touch us. Fear is a flashing signboard … it calls our attention to something that is wrong somewhere. There is only one good sort of fear, and that is the reverential fear of the Lord! Other types of fear are flung at us by the enemy, they become opportunities to learn more about ourselves and the Lord. Remember, fear always comes from the other guy. Use his attacks to alert you to the bigger reality of God’s Love.

Jesus Christ was kind and caring toward everybody. He even warned His enemies – the people who would eventually kill Him, and they too were given an opportunity to change. Right here, right now, you and I no longer have to fear. Jesus loves us perfectly. So now – TODAY, we can go through that door/gate that Christ’s broken, resurrected body provided, into our Heavenly Father’s Presence. Because our personal debt has been paid. We start to remember that we need to live forgiving lives, and now we give away for free what we got for free. 

Psalm 100:4 tells us how to come into His Presence.“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His Presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful Name!”

I exhort you to never forget, whenever you feel you have hit a road-block, (spiritually speaking,) to look at the cross and start praising God for every single thing He did there. The stuff you already know and the stuff you don’t know, yet.Then start listing what He has done in your life already, and keep on going, until you are smiling.That is what “forget not all His benefits” means. It means make an effort to remember them – remind yourself  … on purpose! Some days that can be a big effort. So start to thank Him for your family, friends etc. – the nice ones, and… the not-so-nice ones. That’s called blessing those who hurt you!

I have no idea why we think … and most of us do! … that complaining a whole lot about other people is going to help them improve … or …  maybe, make us feel better. Another dumb idea from the pit. I dunno about you, but doing that doesn’t help me at all – it just magnifies the problem. But praising and giving thanks, opens the door/gate into a totally different perspective. It is easier to access love when you turn the tap of criticism, disappointment and despair OFF.  

Sometimes our generic complaining attitudes mean we actually cannot see any good because we have been overcome by the bad. At that moment my advice is to read the bible aloud, so your ears can hear something other than bad stuff. Preferably the Epistles which are full of totally brilliant things. Then ask for His help.The Holy Spirit will not do things like this for us. Instead we need to remember that WE are the ones with the power to turn things around. That’s why it sometimes seems so hard!

Seriously, we cannot use our badly chosen attitudes to duck out of our own responsibilities. We simply have to choose to change. Jesus died to give US power, over sin, this world and the devil. It is useless to ask the Lord Jesus to redo the things He already did! What He did was once and for all, and permanent. Ask Him for the courage to do things differently. Then begin by thanking Him that He loves you. His love is never negated by our bad attitudes..

My advice is this: we need to deliberately carry our own cross, and embrace whatever that means in our day-to-day lives. The cross is an instrument of torture and death – so it will hurt. But we are to live with the hope of total spiritual resurrection, every single day. Whatever we get into – HE can get us out of it. His love came to each one of us and brought us into a whole new dimension – where love always wins. 👋🏻