Praising the Lord means lifting your hands during a song or saying amen during a sermon, right?

Well, yes and no.
That’s not all there is to it.

We PRAISE God for WHO HE IS and we THANK God for WHAT HE HAS DONE.

Here Isaiah declares to God that he will continually honor and praise His name because He is Isaiah’s God.

Then he declares that God has done so many wonderful things, stating that all those wonderful things were planned out in God’s mind long ago. We don’t see an overt “thank you,” but don’t you feel it?

Let’s think about all that it means for God to be our God and why we should honor and praise Him for that.

Take a look around. See the trees? Grass? Mountains? Sand? Water? Beauty of any kind? God did that.

See the crops that grow across the land? God made those plants that provide food and clothing for us.

See the sky with clouds or stars? He provided those so we could determine if a storm was approaching or for us to navigate our way to our destination.

See the sunshine or rain or frost or snow? God sends those each at the right time to provide what our earth needs in order to provide what we need.

Now look in the mirror. See that person? He or she is made in God’s image by God. Inside the skin that we can see lies an image of the Almighty that we can’t see. He did that so we would hunger for Him.

Look at the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. All provided by God to allow us to see, smell, hear, and taste.

I could go on, but you get the gist. God made everything. He made it possible for humans to not only have food and shelter, but to also enjoy life. That might come in small increments, but we have the capacity and the provision.

Not only did God provide all this, He made a way that sinful us could return to Him, washed forever clean of the sin we were born into. He gave us a Savior.

When we say that Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, Adonai is our God, we recognize all He has been for us: Savior, Provider, Comforter, and so much more.

And when we recognize all the wonderful things he has done for us, our gratitude pours forth without measure.

Let’s take a few minutes today to really think about why we’re praising Him instead of just throwing up an “I praise you God” before moving on to our requests.

Let’s think about Him being our God and what that means. Then let’s move forth in the purpose and plan He created for us long ago.

Coffee, Bible, Journal.