By Glen Bowman | 3rd & Kilgore Church of Christ
If anyone could claim that they should be waited on hand and foot, it was Jesus. The only begotten Son of God who came to save humanity could demand perfect service, right? Instead, He said this about Himself, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus came to be a servant and we should follow His example, even when it results in suffering (1 Peter 2:21).
We have been saved by Jesus to serve as He served. First Peter 2:21 describes both this saved condition and something that God desires from us in that salvation: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” We are supposed to praise God and tell people about how awesome He is! Pretty simple, right? Then why don’t we do it more?
Fortunately, God gives us some wisdom to make this easier. In Psalm 103:2, it says that we should praise Him “and not forget all His benefits.” What has he done for us? The rest of the psalm lists over 20 reasons to praise Him, including: forgiving our sins (v. 3a), healing our diseases (v. 3b), saving us (v. 4a), giving us love and showing us mercy (4b). Read the whole psalm and we could spend a lifetime praising Him just for those things! However, there’s so much more, such as the innumerable prayers that He’s answered for us and things that we’ll probably never even recognize. He certainly deserves our praise!
When we recognize this and love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:28-30), then praising Him becomes easy and even second nature. Giving praise about someone is easier when we realize how much they love us too (Psalm 63:3). We all know people who are deeply in love, because they talk about the person that they love A LOT! Do we love God like that? If so, do we really sound like we’re deeply in love with the Creator of the universe and the Savior of our souls?
Psalm 9:1 gives a picture of what this could look like: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” This attitude should show in ourheartfelt worship of God, through prayer (Psalm 100), singing(Ephesians 5:19), and testifying to what God has done for us (1Corinthians 1:31). It would take a long time to describe all of God’s great accomplishments, so maybe this is why David wrote, “my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long” (Psalm 35:28). It’s an all-day, everydaytask to praise God, since we are to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15).
Of course, the cares of this world and thinking about other things distracts us from this continual praise of God. If we’re able to deal with what’s troubling us internally and let God fix it, then we can praise Him like we should. A psalmist asked, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:11). Our circumstances don’t have to change for us to praise God, but sometimes our soul does. Let’s praise God always, knowing that our hope rests in Him!
