Praise the Lord!

My mind and heart have been really full this week. I'd rather not go into detail right now, I'm posting to tell you what God is showing me through this. What happens when we're upset, stressed, frustrated, confused, hurt? Most of the time, we're focused on ourselves and what is going on around us. And when somebody reminds us to praise God for our hard times we know that person is right, but that is about the last thing we'd like to do. God is worthy of all our praise and He alone deserves it No Matter What (NMW). Before that's always been the reason why I've accepted the need to praise God in difficult times. regardless of what happens here on earth, He is still God and He is still worthy. But, this is what God is now showing me: it's ALL about Him. When we're focused on ourselves, we're off base. And so, what does worshiping do? It focuses us back on Him!! And that's where the focus has to be. "In His presence is fullness of joy." (Psalm 16.11) "He himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2.14), and a verse that is special to me and came to my mind earlier today "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace him whose mind is staid on Thee, because he trusts in Thee." (Isaiah 26.3) (yeah I know it's KJV, but when I was little that was the version we used. I think you can still follow it ok.)

Sing your praise to the Lord, come on everybody stand up and sing one more Hallelujah...

Sing your praise to the Lord, I can never tell ya just how much good that it's gonna do you just to sing... (Rich Mullins)