Imagine if you were at the World Series, the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the whatever you call the big cricket match, and there is a special entertainer scheduled to come out. You would already be hyped up because of the game, being with your friends, and enjoying yourself (assuming that your team is winning.)

Now imagine that the special guest steps out in the middle of thousands of people in a stadium, and it’s Jesus. The crowd goes wild. Everyone is on their feet shouting and clapping and cheering. It’s an unbelievable moment. You could feel the love of God radiating up to you wherever you are sitting. The experience is beyond amazing and powerful.

Let go and praise God.

That’s what praise should be. That can be your experience every time you go before the throne. Your response to Him should be full-out, no holding back. Give Him everything. You know what He’ll give to you? Everything.

We are so afraid of other people that we do not worship and praise our God the way our spirit wants to. It’s our loss when that happens. We never experience God in His fantastic glory because we are so consumed by “what will people think?”

Let it go. Your relationship with God is more important than what people think. And you may be the open door they’ve been waiting for to enter in too. Let your hair down and praise! Jesus is in the house!

There is something powerful and amazing about how praise affects our problems. I love the story of Jehoshaphat when Judah was besieged by enemies. God promised to be with him. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” (2Chron 20:21)  And yes, God delivered them from destruction through the power of that praise.

Praise will release the power of God.

Now then, how big is your problem? Is it anywhere near the size of an invading army? It doesn’t matter. Even if it were bigger, the size of the problem isn’t an issue. How you deal with it is. Jesus said not to worry. Period. In fact, if you can not worry and thank God for taking care of you, even better.

But victory comes with praise. Praise means that you trust God to help you, that you recognize His greatness and compassion to take care of the issues that face you. Praise takes your eyes off the problem and on to God. That’s the real key. When you stop staring at the problem, you see how big God is and how completely trustworthy He is to be God for you. So, lift up your eyes and let the praise begin. Praise God for being amazing.

This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps 118:24) So what do you do when you have a bad day? Some days just start out hard. How do you rejoice then? You pull yourself up by the bootstraps and will yourself to.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad. It’s an act of determination. And yes, you can do it. You attitude is completely in your control. Whatever is falling apart around you may be frustrating, but God is still God. He is still glorious and wonderful. And when you praise Him, your spirit will be lifted. When you put the frustrating issues in His hands, you allow Him to work for you to do what you can’t.

The day isn’t joyful because something good happened to make it joyful, it’s good because God is God and He gave you the day as a gift. No matter how bad your day has become, it’s still a gift. The alternative is to agree with the enemy that the day is bad and choose to not rejoice. Agreeing with the enemy about anything is a bad idea.

No matter how bad it is, make the decision to rejoice and thank God. Once you do, you’ll find all the reasons why you need to be thankful. You open yourself to more blessing when you do.

Praise God for who He is.

Praise to God is not telling Him how good He makes you feel. Have you noticed how many songs we sing in church are about us not Him? They’re nice songs, don’t get me wrong. I sing them a lot, because I love them. But when it’s time to praise God, I want it to be straight to Him, not a round about compliment about how I’ve been blessed.

Praise is about how good God is. It is declaring His holiness, His goodness, His beauty and mercy. It’s standing before Him in wonder and awe as we look on His magnificence. Our praise should go straight from our heart to God because of who He is, not what He’s done. There is a time for that thankfulness, but praise is about adoring God.

When we really get down to describing how awesome God is back to Him, it can be a very humbling experience. We see just how big and amazing He is. He is God and deserves to be praised for His holiness and grace.

Get over that nagging whisper that says that God is an egomaniac who demands praise from us. That’s the enemy trying to twist the truth. God is God, and His holiness is enough reason to draw praise from our lips, as well as all His other aspects that we love so much.

There is something so powerful that is unleashed when children are free to worship God. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. (Ps 8:2) Wow!

Let kids praise God the way they want.

We think that spiritual warfare is about declaring and fasting and Bible thumping. What we really need to do is call the kids in and have a worship service. The praise and worship from kids is about as powerful a force as you can get.

Kids get excited and don’t hold back. That’s why God loved David so much. He loves honest exuberance. Children can feel the presence of God as easily as adults, and it feels as good to them as it does to us. And when they praise God, they silence the enemy! How amazing is that!

Raise up a generation that knows how to praise God and we will change the world. Raise up a generation that knows the love of God and the kingdom will be released and the enemy will have nothing to say about it. And as they grow and see miracle after miracle, there will be nothing to prevent them from doing so much more than Jesus did.

Let kids praise God the way they want to. It’s wonderful and powerful.

True praise releases the presence of God.

I absolutely love to hear stories of how God works in the lives of people. It’s so encouraging because I believe that if He did it there, then He can do it here. And when we talk about the good things that God has done, we release more wind on the testimony to do it again. We get to ride the draft of it.

That being said, I want to repeat a testimony that I heard recently. A woman with stage four cancer, in a wheelchair, went to watch her grandson be part of a children’s worship conference. The conference was all about teaching kids to press into the Spirit of God and release them into worship, in all kinds of ways.

One way the kids were learning to worship was with flags. His banner over me is love. At one point, the kids spontaneously began to march in a flag-waving parade around the room. To look on it, it just looked cute, but the power of their act of praise was enormous.

The power of God fell on the woman in the wheelchair and she felt warmth flow down from the top of her head all the way to her toes. Her cancer was instantly healed, and documented at the local hospital. The children were not involved in a healing ministry. They were released to worship, and their praise touched God so powerfully that He could not help Himself and healed someone.

That is such a wonderful example of how powerful praise and worship really is. I want to be part of that, because God is that good.

Give God the praise that He deserves.

Praise is something that we initiate. It does not come bundled with faith. Just because we believe in God and say that He is Lord, we are not automatically praising Him. Praise is intentional.

Praise is an act of worship. You will often hear of “praise and worship”, as if they are separate, but really what is meant is joyful worship followed by reverent worship. Praise is joyful worship directly from your heart to God.

Praise is your delight in who God is. The scripture refers to putting on the garment of praise because it is an attitude that we take on—joy,delight, love. It is our expression to our God from the depths of our soul to the heights of heaven.

Sitting in church next to someone engaged in praise does not draw you in with them. If you do not participate yourself, then there is no praise in your heart. If you can’t praise God, then you need to talk to Him about that. Are there issues that you need to confess or forgive? You must do it. Lay down the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise. (Isa 61:3) It is an act of worship that will bless your soul.

Give God thanks for all He does for you.

We turn to God with so many needs. We ask so much. But are we grateful for answered prayer? How would you feel if you handed someone a gift and they grabbed it happily and ran off without thanking you? We do that a lot with God. We get so excited when the answers come that we forget that is was the love of God that moved for us.

Thankfulness does more for us than we think. Ten lepers cried out to Jesus for healing, and Jesus healed them. Only one came back to thank Him and worship Him. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” (Luk 17:17-19)

Thankfulness gave the leper a greater healing than those who didn’t come back. Maybe they only got a partial healing. Maybe it was only temporary. I don’t know, but it looks like they didn’t get as much as the one with the grateful heart.

Never forget the One who loves you enough to answer your prayer. Be thankful for all that He does for you.

Another post on thankfulness: Thankfulness Is A Choice

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Not enough words to praise God.

God is good, kind, wonderful, amazing, special, amazingly special. He is love. He is loving. He’s a lover. He is sweet, generous, thoughtful, and giving. He is merciful, forgiving, and forgetful (of my sins). He is big—really big. He is bigger than my imagination. He is powerful and strong. He can do what no one else can do. And He can do it every time.

Jesus is amazing. He is the greatest King, greater than all kings rolled into one really big king. He is magnificent and humble. He is beautiful and joyful and happy. He is Lord and sovereign over all things. He is savior and healer and deliverer. He is the first and last and everything in-between. He’s a flower and a lion and a lamb and a star. He is the Word and the Wisdom of all the ages. He is the best big brother and the closest friend.

The Holy Spirit is a genius. He is funny and quirky and cunning and sly. He is compassionate and thoughtful and delightful. He is helpful and the very best teacher ever. He is modest yet highly skilled and talented. He is the Spirit of skill and talent. He is awesome.

God is above all—so high above all that all can not come close. And I love Him.

Another post on praise: Don’t Let The Rocks Outdo Your Praise

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Sing your praise to God.

Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. (Psa 100:2) God is a lover and He wants His people to be lovers as well. He wants us to enjoy Him as much as He enjoys us. If you go before God in song, how can you not be full of joy? If course, I’m not talking about somber litanies that would put Him to sleep. I’m talking about joyful worship.

I really think God loves music. I think He loves instrumental music as well as singing. I think there will be a lot of music in heaven. He loves it when  you sing to Him. It doesn’t have to be out of the hymn book. You can sing to Him in the shower with made-up words and made-up songs. You can sing the Psalms to Him. You can sing in tongues to Him. I think He just loves a heart full of music and praise. It’s the joy of the Lord being expressed back to Him.

Stop thinking that you never sing because you don’t have a good voice. That won’t fly with God. Make a joyful noise. It’s a command. Who cares if you’re not professional. Very few of us are. Allow yourself to praise Him in song and see how He fills your heart with joy.

Another post on verbal praise: The Sound That Matters

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