Praise the Lord!
Today’s post is written by Niccol Kording from Set Apart & Set Free. We are blessed to have Niccol join the LWG team starting in the 4th quarter of 2011. God is good!!!
I love worship! My hands in the air. The voices around me. My eyes closed to the world and open only to what God chooses to show me. The beautiful sounds all around me. You see, I am blessed with a church of amazing voices – it seems almost everyone can bring the music to life!
Everyone, that is, except me.
I can’t sing. And I don’t mean that in an I can be “pitchy,” a little off tune or flat sort of way. I mean it in the paint peels, dogs howl, people stop singing and turn to see who has been hurt sort of way. If you don’t believe me or are one of those “everyone can sing” people, I will come and sing to your children. But when their faces melt somewhat like the bad guys in the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, you will have no one to blame but yourself.
Just because I can’t sing doesn’t mean I don’t worship. I believe what Ephesians 5:19 says,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
-Ephesians 5:19 (ESV)
But what does it look like to address one another in spiritual songs and psalms outside the confines of the big building with a cross on it?
For me, it doesn’t look like singing “This Little Light of Mine” to the neighborhood children.
What if it looked like something as simple as not yelling at the guy who takes your parking space, helping the elderly man put his groceries in his car, dropping off a note of encouragement – unsigned or giving more than you think “you” can afford because God can.
And what if making a melody to the Lord looked like praise in every breath you take? Can you imagine the revival if every breath we took was an act of worship?
Because it is – every breath, every thought, every action is an opportunity to worship our God – to praise Him for all He is with all you are. So does it mean I’m at the grocery store and thinking,
“We should have corn for dinner.
Thank you Lord that we can afford corn.”
Why not? Take a look around you – it’s no longer that there are starving people in India. It’s everywhere. Jobs are scarce. People are losing their homes. And maybe that’s not you… but it could be and that’s even more reason to praise the Lord. So, I leave you with this. What does it look like to:
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
-Psalm 150:6 (ESV)
In His Grace – Niccol
You’re so right, Nic! Just yesterday (pay day), I was able to go the grocery and fill my trunk with many needed items. As I closed the trunk, I offered a simple breath prayer to Jesus, “Thank you, Lord, for making provision for us.”
When we remember to give thanks, we are giving our praises heavenward, and that, sweet sister, is music to God’s ears!
Keep singing.
peace`elaine
Thanks Elaine! Love when God confirms something in my life!
After my husbands heart attack almost four years ago we began waking up and just saying a quick “breath” prayer together thanking God for allowing is to have another day. I don’t have the words to explain how that short word with Him has changed our lives and our marriage.
Amen to that Niccol. Let us praise the Lord on a daily basis in the actions we take.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. I am looking forward reading more in the near future.
Welcome to LWG! What a wonderful, uplifting post today! Thank you for this reminder.
I enjoyed your post.
Bethany
Thank you all for your wonderful comments! It’s a joy to see how God is working in your praise to Him! Your example of a breath of prayer Amy is such a nice image… but that our first breath each day be spent praising the One who made us – who gave us that breath and that day! Peace, Love & Joy in Christ- Niccol