Praising the LORD should become a habit.  But I have to admit that I don’t always praise my God or even thank Him when I don’t like what is going on.

And yet, praise activates God.

Praise houses God.

Praise turns the enemy away.

So I am challenging us to offer up TWO PRAISES for every complaint. One reason to do this is because complaining hinders our walk with God. Complaining and whining is what kept the Israelites circling in the wilderness for forty years as they were trying to reach the Promise Land.  If they had praised God frequently and habitually, that trip would have only lasted eleven days.  I’m praising because I want to get to what the LORD has promised.

Consider the power of praise as we see it in the Word.

*  In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendago, young men who trusted the LORD, were thrown into a fiery furnace because they went against the king’s wishes and  worshipped the Great I-Am.  While in that burning place, they praised their GOD.  And a fourth presence joined them in the furnace, a “man appearing like the Son of God.” The three men emerged safe, not scorched, not burned, not even smelling like smoke.

*  In Jonah 2, the prophet Jonah changed his ways.  When he had been complaining about his mission, God made a great fish swallow Jonah up.  Finally, from the slimy, dark, acidic belly of that whale, Jonah cried out to his Lord, “I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving.”  God commanded the whale to vomit the prophet up onto dry land, free to continue his mission.

*  In Acts 16, Paul and Silas, during a time of public ministry, were grabbed, stripped, beaten and thrown into prison.   They praised God from their jail cell, even though their feet were locked in stocks and all seemed hopeless.  Suddenly there was an earthquake and the prison doors were flung open and they were free.

Praise frees us to move forward for our God.