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Why You Should Always Start With Praise

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Why You Should Always Start With Praise

Why You Should Always Start With Praise

One way to communicate with God is via prayer.  Another way we can and should communicate with God is via praise.  We can offer praise to God through speaking or singing.  Praise benefits both God and us.  Praise allows us to connect with God on a deeper level.  I’d like to spend a little time sharing with you some things God has shown me about praise and specifically why it’s so important to always start with praise.

Over the years, God really impressed upon me the importance of praise.  It’s honestly not an area that I’ve always been strong in.  To me, praise and worship of God have always felt a little awkward (with the exception of praise and worship music at church).  It seems a little fake if I try to praise God the way I’ve seen others do it in church and on TV.  I’m not saying THEY were fake.  It just didn’t feel genuine to me or seemed too forced when I would attempt to say things like “Oh Lord, you are most holy” or “You are worthy”.  So since it just felt too weird, I simply didn’t do it.

Praise God for who you need him to be

Then God softly convicted me about my lack of praise.  He showed me how I could still give praise to him without it feeling strange or insincere.  I felt like God told me one day to just praise him for who I needed him to be.  He wanted me to praise him for his attributes and characteristics that I needed to experience.

For example, if I need healing, I would say, “I praise you, God, because you are a Healer.”  If I need comfort, I can say, “Praise God that you are my Comforter.”  If I need to feel loved, I can praise, “Praise you Lord that you are Love.  Your word says God is Love.”  If I don’t know what to do in a situation or need direction, I can say, “Praise you, God, because you are my Guide.”

For me, this is a simple approach to praise.  It doesn’t seem phony, forced, or unnatural.  It’s almost like a prayer request, but instead, I am offering praise because it’s who God is.  At the same time, praising this way gives me peace and reassurance because not only am I praising God, but I’m also reminding myself that God is the answer to whatever it is I need at the time.

Praising God reminds us of his benefits

“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV) 

Praise God for who you need him to be. #HowtoPraise #AlwaysStartWithPraise

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Praise as a part of prayer

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How to Recognize God’s Voice

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Learn how to recognize God's voice

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How to Recognize God’s Voice

“Then he (Jesus) added, ‘Pay close attention to what you hear.  The closer you listen the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more.’”  Mark 4:24 (NLT)

I previously shared a post on What Does God’s Voice Sound Like?  I’d like to share some more tips on how to learn and recognize God’s voice.  God’s voice becomes more familiar as we grow in relationship with Him.

God’s voice becomes more familiar as we grow in relationship with Him.

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This is very similar to meeting a new friend.  At first, we probably don’t recognize their voice very well, and they have to introduce themselves when they call on the phone.  However, the longer we are friends and the more time we spend with them (and hear them talk), the easier it is to recognize their voice.  Eventually, they won’t even have to say who they are or introduce themselves.

I didn’t recognize my husband on our first date

The more time spent with someone makes them more familiar and more recognizable.  My husband, Eric, just loves to tell the story (aka make fun of me 🙂 ) about the time we went on our first “official” date.  I went to meet him at a mall.  He was waiting outside the front door for me, and I walked right past him because I didn’t recognize him.  We hadn’t known each other very long in my defense, and he DID have a baseball hat on pulled down low over his eyes!  Nevertheless, he will NEVER let me live it down.

I shudder to think of all the times I must have done the EXACT same thing to God—walk right past Him due to not recognizing Him when He was standing right in front of me.

It’s getting easier for me to recognize God’s voice the more I mature and the closer I get to God.  In hindsight, I wish I would have learned to recognize God’s voice a lot sooner.  I can look back on my life now and see poor choices and/or missed opportunities where I had a “red flag” but didn’t realize at the time that God was speaking to me.  Some things that I’ve learned along the way are the “What”, the “When”, the “How” and the “Why” of God speaking.  My goal is to share a few of these things with you in hopes that you too can learn to recognize God’s voice so that you might miss fewer opportunities or make fewer poor choices.

Recognize God’s Voice in WHAT to listen for: Continue reading →

What Does God’s Voice Sound Like?

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What Does God's Voice Sound Like?

What Does God’s Voice Sound Like?

It never ceases to amaze me how God talks to us.  I’m positive that He’s talked to me my whole life, and I didn’t even know it was Him.  The closer I grow to God and the stronger my relationship gets with Him, the easier it is for me to recognize God’s voice.  Did you know He talks to you all the time too?  You may have not even realized it was Him, simply mistaking God’s voice as just a random thought going through your head or just an odd coincidence of events.

Today, I thought I’d share a story I wrote a while back about hearing and recognizing God’s voice in something as simple as home décor. 

The closer you get to God, the easier it is to recognize His voice.

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“My sheep recognize my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 (MSG)

Jesus’ arm

Jesus told me where his arm was.  That was the message that I had sent to my husband, half-jokingly, half-serious.  I have a wall decoration that is a carved wooden cross with a figurine of Jesus hanging on the cross.  Eric had brought it back to me as a souvenir from Budapest when he was there on leave while in the military. There is a place in the living room where it usually hangs.  I had temporarily removed it to put up some Christmas decorations in its place.  It had been stored in one of the empty Christmas boxes. 

After Christmas was over and the decorations were taken down (I’m not going to tell you how long after Christmas this was), I had taken the cross and set it on an end table waiting to hang it back up.  One of the kids later passed by it and asked where Jesus’ arm was.  It had been broken off.  I assumed that the kids must have broken it while playing with their cousins and neglected to tell me.

“Random” thoughts

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Pray Without Ceasing

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Pray Without Ceasing: What does that even mean?

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)

1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. Some translations of this verse say pray continually or pray without stopping. So what does this even mean? Does mean that I need to sit around for hours at a time praying? I don’t think so. I think this is more about turning our thoughts to God on a regular basis and just talking to him as we do this. To me what it all boils down to is this, to pray without ceasing just means to pray and talk to God throughout your day as an ongoing conversation. Prayer is not a religious ritual. Prayer is a conversation with our father and our friend, and it comes from a place of relationship not rigid or rote protocol.

Prayer is not a religious ritual.

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An “Aha” moment

In my previous blog post about When and Where to Pray, I wrote about how when I was in college I had a sudden realization after reading this verse that there is really no “certain” or “right” time to pray. Growing up, typically prayer times were before meals and at bedtime. I remember reading “Pray without ceasing” and having the thought that God wants to talk to me all day. I just need to pray all the time and not just before meals or bed.

From that point on, I started having a daily, ongoing conversation with God.  I still had regular and more formal times to pray, but more often than not I would just talk to God throughout the day.  This idea of an ongoing conversation gave me the freedom to have a friendship and real relationship with God.  I didn’t even say “amen”. It was just an unending conversation all day long.

Sometimes I imagine this like talking to an invisible friend walking beside me (because he kind of is!). It doesn’t even have to be out loud, but it can be. Sometimes I find myself praying out loud without realizing it. You can imagine some of the strange looks I might get. I remember one time I was walking in the kitchen feeling really frustrated, drained, and overwhelmed. Slightly under my breath (or so I thought), and in a bit of a growl, I pleaded to God saying, “Sustain me”. My husband, Eric apparently overhead. He laughed as he jokingly asked me if I was demon-possessed because all he heard was a growling sound and what he thought was a “SAVE ME”. We got a good laugh about that!

To pray without ceasing just means to ongoing conversation with God.

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Some examples of what “pray without ceasing” might look like on an average day for me

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God’s Voice vs the Devil’s Voice

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God’s Voice vs the Devil’s Voice

“My sheep recognize my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 (MSG)

I think for many people it can sometimes be intimidating to try to discern God’s voice or determining if we are hearing from God or not. At times it can be frustrating to distinguish “Is that God talking to me, is that my own thoughts, or maybe that could even be the devil trying to confuse me or get me off course?” However, there are some ways that we can differentiate between God’s voice vs the devil’s voice.

The first thing to recognize is that we are NOT crazy because we will hear both voices. I say “hear”, but most often they present as thoughts in our heads. Therefore, since we will hear different, and often competing, voices it’s extremely important that we learn to recognize the difference between God’s voice and the devil’s.

I think there are three helpful ways we can easily do this:

  1. Know the character of God and his ways
  2. Know the character of Satan and his ways
  3. Discern how it makes you feel in the moment

When you understand the character, ways, and nature of God and of Satan, then we more easily distinguish the ways and manner in which they will speak and the kinds of things they would and wouldn’t say. In turn, this can then help us to determine how to move forward with that particular “voice” that we are hearing.

Know the character of God and his ways

We can learn about the character of God just as we can learn about the character of anyone else we know…by spending time with him or by learning about his nature by the things he has done. We can do these things by reading the Bible and talking to others who have a close relationship with God. When we read the Bible, we can read through the lens of “what does this tell me about God?” in order to help us learn more about his character.

I’ve written previously about some of the character traits of God from A to Z. Once we’ve learned a lot of these characteristics, we can compare them to the voice that we hear and see if it aligns. God is peaceful…does this voice give me peace or lead me in peace? God is a comforter…does this comfort me? He is also merciful…does this voice offer mercy? God cannot lie…am I hearing any untruths or contradictions to scripture?

Once we learn and become familiar with God’s ways, we can start to say things like, “That sounds like God. This falls right in line with how he would work.” OR… “This doesn’t sound like something God would say” or “I don’t think God would talk to me in this way. This probably isn’t his voice.” When we learn more from scripture we can come to better conclusions.

Learn about God’s character to differentiate his voice from Satan’s voice.

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Praising God from A to Z

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Praising God from A to Z examples with praise songs

Praising God from A to Z

Last week I shared a way of praising God using the letters of the alphabet by saying a character trait or attribute of God for each letter and praising God for being that particular trait. I encouraged you to try a few different methods of this type of praise as another way of praising God on a regular basis. I mentioned that this week I would give some examples of praising God from A to Z with accompanying scriptures and praise songs.

So as promised…

Take Some Practical Steps and Use These Examples (and songs–click song title to play songs in YouTube) to Praise God From A to Z:

Praising God because He is Able

“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV)

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)

“He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.” Romans 4:21 (NLT)

“Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” Hebrews 7:25 (NLT)

“He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Hebrews 11:19 (ESV)

Praise Song: God is Able (Hillsong Worship)

Praising God because He is Beautiful

“One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

“On that day the LORD of Hosts will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people” Isaiah 28:5 (HCSB)

“But in that day, the branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of all who survive in Israel.” Isaiah 4:2 (NLT)

“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.” Isaiah 33:17 (NIV)

“From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.” Psalm 50:2 (NIV)

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

Praise Song: What A Beautiful Name (Hillsong Worship)

Praising God because He is Compassionate Continue reading →

God From A to Z

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God from A to Z

God From A to Z

I was at a Moms in Prayer meeting a few weeks ago, and one of the moms mentioned a creative way to praise God from A to Z. Each week at the start of every Moms in Prayer meeting, we spend time praising God for one of his many attributes, characteristics, or personality traits. Our leader can either choose a prayer sheet with a pre-printed attribute and accompanying verses, or she can choose her own attribute and verses and customize our own prayer sheet for the week. Somehow we got into a conversation about choosing these attributes. She mentioned that she had once heard about saying a prayer of praise via the ABC’s of adoration.

I loved this idea. The concept is to say a character or attribute of God for each letter of the alphabet and then praise God for being that particular trait as you work your way through the alphabet. For example, I praise you God because you are Awesome, Bold, Caring, Defender, etc.

God from A to Z journal entry

God from A to Z journal entry

I took it on as a challenge one morning, and started writing some ABC attributes of God in my journal.

Making praise a habit

Praise is important, and we should be praising God on a regular basis.

“Praise the LORD, O my soul! With all that is within me, praise his holy name!” Psalm 103:1 (NET)

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Psalm 100:4 (NIV)

“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD!” Psalm 150:1-6 (NLT)

I mentioned in a previous post about how praise (particularly separate from praise and worship) was always a little awkward and unnatural feeling to me. However, God convicted me about how I need to spend more time praising him…and not just for his benefit but also my own. Until it became a habit, it was sometimes a little hard to come up with what to say. This idea of praising God from A to Z would’ve come in handy!

In that post on starting with praise, I listed several reasons WHY it’s important, and WHY we should start with praise.

Praise God for who you need Him to be

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The Holy Spirit Told Me to Eat a Pineapple

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The Holy Spirit Told Me to Eat a Pineapple

The Holy Spirit Told Me to Eat a Pineapple

The Holy Spirit told me to eat a pineapple. Sounds crazy right? I thought so too, but let me back up and share the whole story with you. This really is more about going to the Holy Spirit for guidance and listening…even in the small things.

A couple of weeks ago I had lunch with one of my friends. I always enjoying getting together with good Christian friends. I always walk away feeling so encouraged and uplifted and sometimes even challenged a little, as was the case when I met with Kim. After all, isn’t that how God intended for Christian community to work?

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NLT)

Anyhow, Kim was sharing some things with me about how God has been working in her life and about some projects that she’s working on. Something that stuck out to me was how she kept mentioning her reliance on the Holy Spirit, for EVERYTHING.

I had to ask myself, “Do I rely on the Holy Spirit as much as I should? Do I go to him or listen for guidance on even the small stuff?” If I’m answering honestly, it’s “No”, at least not as often as I should.

I DO listen to God and speak with him regularly. Also, I DO listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice. Fortunately, he’s a familiar friend that I do recognize. I think where I was missing the mark was in seeking guidance, on purpose, for even small things in my life. Things where I think, “I’ve got this” or things that seem too trivial to bother God with. Things like minor stomach discomfort or acid-reflux.

Stomach issues, the Daniel Fast, and then more stomach issues

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