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I believe this topic of praising God is vital to our spiritual, mental and emotional health. It offers the answers for many of the problems each of us faces. I feel as though I’m just beginning to learn how to be more intentional about praising God and how important that praise is in my life. But I sure want to be a fast-learner, don’t you?

God has asked us to praise him, not because he needs our praise, but because we need the benefits that come from praising him. Praise helps us mature spiritually, and brings healing to us emotionally, mentally and physically. Praise can really change those things about us that we know need changing—those harmful personality traits that we can’t seem to get rid of. All of those are very good reasons to learn to praise God more and more.

Another extremely important reason to praise God is that it defeats our enemy, Satan. It is a weapon to be used in spiritual conflict. Now, perhaps I should remind us all that we are in a spiritual battle. We have an enemy who wants to devour us, to defeat us, to rob and steal from us, to destroy us any way he can. And he has a host of helpers. This enemy is real, and we are in a daily battle with him. If you don’t recognize his existence and know how to defeat him, you will be continually at his mercy, and wondering why your life never seem to be victorious as it should be.

Well, praise is one weapon to use against this enemy and it is a very effective weapon. 2 Chronicles 20 is a beautiful example of how praise can be used to defeat our enemy. Just to give a brief background, war had been declared on the people of God by their enemies. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, called the nation to repentance, fasting and prayer. And as they repented and prayed, God assured them of victory, though they were outnumbered by their enemies. Listen to what they did to win this victory:

 Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.’ As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another” (2 Chronicles 2:20-23).

Here we see that the people of God were victorious even though their enemy was much greater and stronger than they were. And praise was the tool they used to appropriate the victory that God had promised them.

Now when did the victory come? After they began singing and praising. I sure hope you’re paying close attention, because this is a very important concept that will make a difference in your life. My friends, in spiritual warfare we must learn to praise God even before we see the victory. You know, believing that God can answer prayer is not enough. But believing that he has heard and has answered—even before you see his answer—that’s faith. We show that kind of faith when we praise him in advance.

And when we praise, our enemy is defeated. Why? In Psalm 22:3 we are told that God inhabits the praise of his people. This means that where there is praise and adoration of him, there he identifies and openly manifests his presence. He takes up residence in the praise of his people. And his presence always makes Satan run the other way. Satan cannot abide the presence of the living God. So, praise him. He will inhabit your praise and your enemy will flee. Satan is allergic to praise.

Well, if we see the many good reasons and benefits for praise, then let’s talk about how we do it. How do we get these ideas off the pages of the Bible and working in our everyday lives? How does a Christian working woman, for example, who has to get up early every day, many times take care of children and lots of duties, who has to wear lots of hats, put in long hours and try to be all things to all people—how does she incorporate praise into her very being? Here are some important things to know about praise that will help you praise God even more.

First, realize this: Praise is not a function of our emotions. It is not a feeling! Now, I don’t mean that we never have feelings when we praise God, but praise is not dependent on feelings. All through the Psalms David kept saying:

Psalm 7:17:  “I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness.”

Psalm 9:2:  “I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.”

Psalm 35:18:  “Among the throngs I will praise you.”

Over and over again David set his will to praise the Lord. We don’t praise just when we feel like it. We don’t praise just when things are going right. We set our will to have a life of praise.

This is really important to understand. You must learn not to let your emotions dictate your praise. Praise is done with your mind and your will. Usually the emotions will follow, but whether they do or not, you must set your mind to praise God.

Second, praise needs to be continuous. We need to incorporate it throughout our day.

Psalm 34:1: ” I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”

Psalm 71:8: ” My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long.”

As I was meditating on this, I thought, “Lord, how can I praise you all day long when I have to do so many other things?” And I thought of Daniel, how he praised God three times a day. In the midst of a pagan world, Daniel was a man who learned to praise God regardless of his circumstances.

Thirdly, we are told to praise God in all things. Not for all things but in all things. How do you praise God when things are bad? How can you do that?

Hebrews 13:15 says “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” What is a sacrifice of praise?

I believe that is the praise we offer when we cannot humanly see any reason for praising—when all our feelings and emotions are not praising God, but our lips are.

I first saw this when a good friend was going through an awful depression many years ago. Without getting into the whole story, this godly, strong man sank into a deep black depression almost overnight, and those of us who knew and loved him couldn’t believe what we saw and heard. But God miraculously delivered him. As he was beginning to come back from that terrible siege, he said as he would be going to work, he would force himself to say verses of praise. He said it took everything in him to say them because he didn’t feel them. But he was able to continue to offer praise with his mouth.

And then he suddenly realized that this was a sacrifice of praise. Praising God with his lips when his heart didn’t feel it. Offering up praise when the circumstances were dark and bleak. Praising God in spite of the fact that we don’t understand and we don’t have answers. That’s what a sacrifice of praise is. God worked such a miracle in his life.

Praise can take many forms:

  • It can be a formal time with others, such as church or meetings.
  • It can be a quiet, holy time with God alone, such as your daily quiet times with him.
  • It can be a joyous celebration, when you spontaneously rejoice over God’s goodness.
  • It can be one-sentence “thank yous” throughout the day. Do you practice thanking God all through the day? It’s a great idea. “Thanks, Lord, for helping me get that done today.” “Thanks, Lord, for keeping me from saying something I shouldn’t have said in that situation.” “Thanks, Lord, for this parking space.” One-sentence thank yous are terrific ways to praise God.
  • It can be singing a song, reading a poem of praise, sitting and thinking about God and his greatness.
  • It can be an attitude of your heart as you go through your day—that almost unconscious knowledge within you that though your mind is on other duties, your subconscious being is praising God for his goodness.
  • Praise can take the form of your thoughts. If your thoughts frequently turn to him with gratitude and love, that is praising God.

But praise is not automatic. If you are to become a person of praise, it has to be a planned, focused part of your life. If you don’t make it a priority and put it into your schedule, find ways to remind yourself, and continually keep it in your head, you’ll forget. Satan will see to that.

I have a suggestion: Print some cards with praise verses on them. Then put them by your bed and before you roll out of bed, pick one up and say it—out loud—the first words out of your mouth in the morning. Then have some at work, and at lunch before you go back to work, stop and find some place where you can say that verse out loud. Then at night the last words you say before you hit the pillow, read out loud a verse of praise.

Put verses around where you can see them: over the sink, on your refrigerator, on your desk, wherever you can see them often, and read those praise verses frequently throughout the day. Take ten second praise breaks! It will change your whole day.

So, do you want to become a praising person? It will bring great spiritual blessings and benefits into your life. If you really want to, th­en determine to consciously make it a part of your schedule. Plan to praise God. Learn to offer sacrifices of praise. Learn to praise before you see the answer. You will discover the great joy that awaits you as you become a praise person.

If you would like to download and print a copy of our praise cards, please click here.

Or you can email us or call us at 630-462-0552 and we will mail them to you.