Daily life with Jesus by Grahame Howard: Never stop praising God

Thursday 7 May 2020

Never stop praising God

"I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth."
Psalm 34:1. NKJV

Picture the scenario:
You don't hear the alarm and sleep through until 8.30am - you're supposed to be at work at this time, but work is 30 minutes away. Is this a time to bless and praise God? This scripture tells me it is - 'at all times.'
After a quick shower, hurried dressing and hasty goodbyes to your family, who are also late; you dash out into the bitter cold. Your car is iced up and you have no de-icer; also the inside of the car is also misty. You turn on the ignition and nothing happens, except for a slow whurring sound - flat battery. AAARGH!
By now it's 9am and you're on you mobile to a garage who tell you that it will be an hour before they can get to you - at least. Is this a time to bless and praise God?
'Yes, but things happen,' you say, 'the devil's doing this, he's after ruining my day.' That may be so, but you can't blame the devil for everything that goes wrong. Wouldn't praise be a better thing to do? 'You must be joking,' you scream back, 'how can you praise God when all of this is happening?' Quite easily. Just open your mouth and do it. Watch this from Psalm 34:-

'I sought the LORD and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.' v4

'This poor man cried out and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles' v6

And what about Paul and Silas in Acts 16? They had been falsely imprisoned, beaten with rods and then thrown into a rat-infested, smelly old prison and clamped into stocks. Did they moan about it? No, they praised God and there was an earthquake, setting all of the prisoners free.

Come on, how can you not bless and praise God. At this particular time, you're probably thinking that I'm crazy, but I'm not. I'm quoting God's Word to you. Whether you take notice of it is up to you; but it's wise to do so.

'Why do things go wrong like this?' you may ask. It's life. Things happen and we need to rise above it. God does test us to see how we're getting on. At times such as this, what does he see in you? Do you pass the test? We all fall short at times but it is what we learn from the experiences that matter. It helps to play the video back in your mind and identify where it went wrong for you. Ask yourself what you could have done differently and then determine that you won't do this next time.

The real secret is learning to bless and praise God, AT ALL TIMES!