Sacrifice Of Praise

I never really understood what the phrase "sacrifice of praise" meant until I began to understand the story of Paul and Silas when they were beaten and thrown into the jail.  Shackled in chains and treated like murderers, for nothing more than speaking truth and healing for many people, they were able to praise God.  When I am wronged and misunderstood I have to admit it can be hard to do anything but be angry with the people that hurt me.  And after that statement I can say that I understand why it is a sacrifice to praise God when things are going wrong.  The world would tell us to fight back and get angry.  The world tells us to get revenge and even wants to convince us that it is God's fault.  As mentioned in day 1 of this lesson, sacrifice is the act of giving up something you want to keep.  When we are having a bad day or life is messy don't we sometimes feel like being grumpy about it?  Don't we try to justify our rude or brash behavior when we are in a bad mood?  Yes, when we are wronged or things aren't working out for us we get mad and not only do we get mad we want to stay mad, hang on to that anger and blame others or argue back and seek revenge.  Or what about that thing you have been praying for and you don't seem to be getting answers?  It is a huge sacrifice to praise God during those times.  It is even harder to praise the person that has just hurt you or the doctor who just told you that you have cancer.  Friends, next time you are in a tough spot and things are making you angry, and scared, the best thing you can do for yourself is go to God, drop at His feet or stand tall with arms stretched to the heavens and praise God with everything you have.  Sacrifice your fears, dark feelings and disappointment, offer it all up to God and praise Him for being with you through it all.  Praise Him for His ability to help you in the days and months ahead as you deal with your pain.  This true sacrifice, offering up something that the world encourages us to hang on to, is our way to freedom in Jesus Christ.  We can stand when others expect to see us fall because we trust our God to help us!

With Jesus' help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of His name.

Hebrews 13:15