Praising God

"Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise  Him in His mighty heavens.

Praise Him for His acts of great power;

Praise Him for His surpassing greatness!

Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet,

Praise Him with the harp and lyre!

Praise Him with tambourine and dancing,

Praise Him with the strings and flute!

Praise Him with the clash of cymbals,

Praise Him with resounding cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD!"

Psalm 150

It was a wonderful way to begin the year, talking about praising the Lord. I loved the reminder of all aspects of praise.

The Who of Praise: The Lord

Only God is worthy of our praise. In praise we are responding to who God is and what He has revealed to us.

We need to put off individualism and consumerism and focus on praising the Lord for who He is.

The Where of Praise: the sanctuary

We are to gather together as God's people to worship and praise the Lord. We are also able, though Christ, to be living temples of the Holy Spirit and can worship anywhere. Our lives are to be a lives of praise.

The When of Praise: At All Times!

We are to praise God when we are alone and when we are with other believers

The Why of Praise: Because of Who God is and what He has done

We praise God because we have experienced Him and His amazing grace

The What of Praise: Life

There are many things included in praise including exultation, reminding us of what God has done, expressing doubts, confusion, encouraging each other and speaking Truth over our lives. We are declaring about God.

Praise helps us rehearse how we are to live our life

The How of Praise:

• With our Voices
• Speak- encouraging each other, saying amen, engaging
• Sing- Lifting up praise songs to God
• Shout- expressing verbally the excitement or anguish that is going on inside our hearts
• With our Hands
• Lift- communicates intimacy, sacrifice, surrender, intercession
• Play Instruments- Use instruments to express yourself, but don't rely on them either. Our voices are instruments
• Clap- Expressing admiration 
• With Our Whole Body
• Stand- Expression of reverence, unity and honor
• Bow- Puts things in perspective, shows surrender, helps us to focus, humility
• Dance- expressing the joy and excitement that the Lord gives us

Worship and praise are about God and not us. We are to respond to God and what He has done for us, because He has done great things!

How are we stifling our expression to God?