We are tailor-made for praising God. Our voices are for singing. Our hands, eyes, and hearts are made just right to be lifted up to the Lord. With our feet we can dance before the Lord. Our entire bodies can be offered "as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship" (Rm 12:1). Our minds and emotions can be trained and inspired to make music unto the Lord and to articulate our love for Him in words.
We are born to praise the Lord, or more precisely, re-born to praise Him. Almost all our other activities will pass away. Soon we will not be preaching, teaching, healing, working, and suffering. However, we will always be praising. Praise is the eternal activity.
So don't be afraid to praise Him. "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known. Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight; what you have whispered in locked rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops" (Lk 12:2-3). Even the quiet, hidden workings of God will be proclaimed. You will be the one to proclaim them.
In the end, every knee will bend and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11). So why wait? Praise Him now. Make praise your priority. Isn't that what life, and eternal life, are all about? The Lord is worthy to be praised (Rv 5:12). The old spiritual says: "I don't know what you came to do, but I came to praise the Lord."
| PRAYER: | By the power of the Spirit, may I bless the Lord at all times; may His praise be ever in my mouth (Ps 34:2). |
| PROMISE: | "The hairs of your head are counted! Fear nothing, then. You are worth more than a flock of sparrows." –Lk 12:7 |
| PRAISE: | St. Paul praised the Lord with his life by being a "good and faithful servant" as a missionary for fifty years. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College