A Tisket - A Tasket
God Has Filled My Blessing Basket
Julia Bettencourt
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Hebrews 13:15"
Giving praise to the Lord is one of the best ways to express our thanks to God for His blessings and yet how
many of us do it on a regular basis? Yes, we normally go through our routines of thanking God for our food
before we eat, sometimes we even thank Him for the clothes we wear and praise Him for the sunshine.
Around the Thanksgiving holiday we may even list out our blessings and reflect on what God has done, but
to do we really "offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually" as our theme verse, Hebrews 13:15, states?
Continual doesn't just mean once a year or even once a day for that matter. It implies that it is repeated
without interruption. David said in Psalm 34:1, "...His praise shall continually be in my mouth." He also said,
"At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments." (Psalm 119:62) When's
the last time we found ourselves up at midnight thanking the Lord? Later on in that same psalm David says,
"Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments." Do we stop seven times a day to
praise God? Do we even stop once or twice to praise Him?
Now that we know that we need to praise God continually, how do we do it? If you think that all praising God
involves is sitting in a small group in a quiet place, whispering quiet praise songs--think again! Praising God
is an active thing. The Bible says the following about praise. "shout for joy" (Ps. 32:11) "O clap your hands"
(Ps. 47:1) "sing" (Ps. 47:6) "make a loud noise" (Ps. 98:4) "lift up your hands" (Ps. 134:2) "with the sound of
trumpet" (Ps. 150:3) "upon the loud cymbals" (150:5) "make a joyful noise" (Ps. 98:4) "rejoice" (Ps. 98:4)
"with harp" (Ps. 33:2) We are not to keep praising God to ourselves. We are to "...make known his deeds
among the people. (Psalm 105:1) In other words if you receive a blessing--tell someone about it.
If we are going to develop a lifestyle of praise to God continually we need to put things in perspective.
Realize who God is and we who are not. "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture." (Psalm 100:3,4) We need to recognize
that all of the things we find in our blessing basket come from above.
- P Praise God because He is POWERFUL.
"Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed
by thy great power, and by thy strong hand." Nehemiah 1:10
"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power,
and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict." Job 27:23
- R Praise God because of His RIGHTEOUSNESS.
"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are
a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast." Psalm 36:6
"...for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth..." Daniel 9:14
- A Praise God because he is ABLE.
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Ephesians 3:20
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work" 2 Corinthians 9:8
- I Praise God because He is INFINITE.
"'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath
been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall
be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to
him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36
- S Praise God because of His STRENGTH.
"God is my strength and power:
And he maketh my way perfect." 2 Samuel 22:33
"The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD
is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself:
the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved." Psalm 93:1
- E Praise God because He is EVERLASTING.
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the
everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends
of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no
searching of his understanding." Isaiah 40:28
"...and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
P-R-A-I-S-E!
Copyright ©2001-2007 Julia Bettencourt
Scripture References are from the King James Version.
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