SOMETHING DON’D ON ME…
“Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him for His excellent greatness. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Hallelujah!” Psalm 150:1,6
A story was told about the great director, Alfred Hitchcock as he was leaving a hotel with a friend. They were on an elevator and engaging in idle chit-chat. The lift stopped and a man and woman got on.
“So,” Hitchcock said to his friend—as though he had been in the middle of a story, “I leaned over the corpse to see if he was dead, and pulled the knife out of him. I wiped it on my trousers and placed it back in the kitchen drawer. I walked out the back door, caught a bus on the corner, and heard no more about it.”
The elevator stopped and everyone got off. As Hitch walked away with his friend, he said, “Now, they will talk about that for the rest of their lives!”
What do people hear YOU talking about? Right now, we all talk about the ‘Rona and the Lockdown and how much we hate wearing masks and “when is this ever gonna end?” Yep…that’s me too. But I wonder…how much MORE could we be doing for the work of the Lord if how WE talked was more memorable?
Do you PRAISE GOD in the Sanctuary of your home? Do the kids hear you talking more, singing more, praising more? Or do they hear us griping more?
Do you PRAISE HIM in the Heavens? Other than the horrible ‘Rona… has anyone noticed that we’ve had a particularly nice Spring?! Winds haven’t been unbearable…flowers are in bloom…the Wisteria looked incredible this year! Many of you (me included) are getting projects done around the house that you’ve said for years, “When I get some time, I’m gonna…” And with this time, you HAVE done a few things! Has God been PRAISED for that?
Have we praised HIM for His Mighty Acts? We have a prayer list each week…but do we celebrate the things He HAS done? Tom Banks has come home! John Bridges is making progress! Wes Weems got the “All clear” from his battle with COVID-19! Our God HAS done mighty things…and He continues to do 10,000 things in our life that we are not seeing!
Please understand…I’m not pointing the finger at you! I’ve done my fair share of belly-aching lately. Maybe that’s why this Psalm really stung me this week…harder than the murder hornets that are apparently headed out way! Even if the circumstances aren’t great…OUR GOD IS GREAT! He DESERVES our praise! I think it’s time MORE PRAISE came out of my mouth, and less sniveling.
And in PRAISING HIM…we are less focused on our “situations.” When our focus is on the Greatness of God, our voices DECLARE that! And when our voices are whining about our circumstances, we are declaring where our focus has been!
Maybe Hitchcock was right in his little prank. Maybe those people DID talk about that at every dinner party for years! And maybe the Psalmist IS CORRECT (Spoiler alert: HE IS!) that we are to declare the greatness of our God…in SPITE of the circumstances in which we find ourselves!
So what are YOU talking about this week?
May the Peace of our God be on your heart and in your home this week! Shalom!
Don
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