Praise God and Thank Him (eBook)

Biblical Keys for a Joyful Life

Jeff Cavins (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
160 Seiten
Viident (Verlag)
978-1-63582-285-4 (ISBN)

Infos

The Bible holds many keys for living a joyful life, and praise and thanksgiving are two of the most powerful. Jeff Cavins explains what biblical praise is and how it can transform any difficulty and lead to a deeper trust in God. He shows how thanksgiving-the attitude of gratitude-is a natural expression of praising God, and he provides practical tips for incorporating it into your life.

Textauszug

Introduction

AS THE YEARS HAVE PASSED, I HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO see how praising and thanking God can make a difference in my life and in the lives of others. Over the years while serving in various ministries, I have heard from many people about the obstacles they face in everyday life. One common question centers on what to do when things look impossible. In my quest to find answers for my life and also to encourage others, I began to study the Scriptures to find some solutions. It did not take long before I noticed that people in the Bible had no problem complaining to God about their problems, just like so many of us, but then, after they did their complaining, often they began to praise God for his greatness and thank him for the mighty deeds he had done.

I learned from Moses that the Lord answered praise and thanksgiving with great deliverance. Gideon, Samson, David, Ezra, Nehemiah, Paul, Peter—they all had lessons to learn about what to do when times got tough, desperate, or impossible.

As time progressed in the Bible, each person would recall the great deeds of the Lord, so by the time of Paul there was an incredible amount of evidence chronicling the faithfulness of the Lord. Now, after two thousand years, today we have so much to draw from when we find ourselves wondering if God cares about our situation. We’ll be looking at many of these Bible greats and what they had to say about praise and thanksgiving in future chapters.

So what about your battles? What are you facing today that looks impossible? One of the things that defeats many of us from the very start is that we are inspired by the stories in the Bible but cannot see ourselves responding the way the Bible characters did. We look around and we don’t see God interacting in our situations the same way he did with Moses or Abraham or King David. Did God only answer those who lived in biblical times, or does he still intervene in people’s lives today? Can God turn around situations that make you feel penned in on every side? The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, the prophet Zechariah said to the remnant of Judah trying to rebuild their nation and Temple that God’s involvement, his power, is key when facing difficult situations.

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)

The pattern in Scripture is consistent. When faced with difficulty, people responded in a specific way for success. To be victorious, they responded with praise.

Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What if God still enters into the life of his people and rescues them and delivers them from all their enemies? What about your difficult situation? A powerful question to ask yourself is this: “Does God still stand with his people and move mightily in their lives?” If he doesn’t, then all the knowledge of God you might gain from studying the Bible, all knowledge of Church history and Church teaching, will merely leave you with great ideas and pithy sayings. Without God’s presence here and now in your life, your faith will be void of any power or substance to actually change your circumstances and your own thinking.

Back in the 1970s, Merlin Carothers wrote a book called Power in Praise. He used the example of driving a car without power steering (remember those days?). Without power steering, the steering wheel is hard to turn, but with it, it’s a breeze. Carothers compared this to praising vs. complaining. He said praise is like power steering—once you begin to praise, things get easier. But if you just sit and complain, everything is harder. The way to begin is to just step out and trust God.

The Church has given us the gift of the saints’ lives to encourage us that in every generation, God does great things in people’s lives. But does that mean you have to be a saint in order for God to help you in your time of need? Remember, the saints were all ordinary people too at one time. They needed to call on the Lord for help, just like you and me. St. Augustine said our hearts are restless unless they rest in God. This restlessness often accompanies the great challenges in our lives. By actively praising God and giving him thanks, our hearts will find the resting place that we so desire. St. Teresa of Avila said this:

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you.

All things are passing away:

God never changes.1

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE PROBLEMS

One thing is certain: Life will never be problem free. Look at what happens in the world on any given week—wars, terrorist attacks, government shutdowns, natural disasters, horrific accidents, violent crime, and high unemployment rates. Individuals are faced with job loss, serious illness, and family tragedies. Problems are a fact of life.

When people are faced with obstacles or problems, they might respond positively, or they might respond negatively, or they might choose to do nothing. But they will respond. Some deny that the problem exists. Others run away from their problems. Still others look for someone else to blame. In the Bible there are those who chose to respond positively to devastating situations: Job is just one example. There are also examples of those who responded negatively to their situations: King Saul, or Judas, for instance. We’ll look at them in more detail in the first section of the book.

Therefore, it’s important to realize that it’s not a question of if we are going to respond, but how we respond to our problems and obstacles that will determine whether we are successful in our walk with God or whether we will become even more frustrated with the difficulties that we face.

THE BEST RESPONSE

There are plenty of inferior ways to respond to problems and handle the stress in your life. You can respond by yelling or by throwing something. You might turn to alcohol or become addicted to social media and the Internet. But how would you like to learn a new way of dealing with the difficulties in your life? How would you like to learn God’s prescribed way of dealing with difficulties—praise and thanksgiving? Wouldn’t it be valuable to learn to respond to difficulties in a way that changes both you and your circumstances? That’s what this book is all about.

The answer to the question of whether God still moves mightily in the lives of his people is overwhelmingly yes. God never changes. God wants to move in your life. But in order for him to act in your life, some things are required of you. First and foremost is your cooperation. The prophet Hosea said,

Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit of steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the LORD,

that he may come and rain salvation upon you. (Hosea 10:12)

You’ll need to learn about God and his ways. It also will require a harnessing of your will so you can turn your life and your circumstances over to God—even when everything looks dark and you feel like you are on the brink of despair. Breaking up the fallow ground of habits and patterns will be necessary to walk in the victory God wants to give you.

IF YOU FEEL HOPELESS…

Before we go any further, let me extend an anchor of hope to you if you feel hopeless. Not only can your perspective change in terms of how you are viewing your present circumstances, but those circumstances can change, too. There is always hope! Maybe you are facing a personal crisis in your marriage, at work, or in the life of one of your children. Perhaps you or someone close to you is struggling with a health issue, a financial challenge, relationship problems, or job security. No matter what the difficulty is, know this: God is with you and wants to be active in the details of your life. He knows your situation and wants to go through it with you. He doesn’t want you to go through it alone.

God has something greater than the answers you hear in the world. Today, on television, radio, print media, and the Internet, we are faced with a plethora of life coaches, mentors, pop psychologists, all purporting to solve our challenges and bring us peace and prosperity. Too often, though, all of these various experts lack the power to follow through on their own advice. In the end, they offer simplistic solutions to complex problems. Can a TV host really untie the knots of twenty years of bad behavior in forty minutes? Listening and watching, we feel like we have discovered the secret, and we’re ready to move on—only to face the fact that we lack the power to carry out the changes that are necessary. Too many times we come away feeling empowered, only to find out that we actually don’t have sufficient power within ourselves to overcome the challenges we’re confronted with.

What if there was someone smarter than these authorities? What if there was someone more powerful than the authors of the most popular books in the world today? Someone who knew you so...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-10: 1-63582-285-8 / 1635822858
• ISBN-13: 978-1-63582-285-4 / 9781635822854