Category Archives: praise

“There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.” – C.S. Lewis

When I read Psalm 8, my mind goes to Lamentations 5.

What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. -Psalm 8:4-5 

The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to morning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!… Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! – Lamentations 5:15-16,21

We are Imago Dei.  We human beings are created in the image of God.  We are “gods” in the sense that we were created by God to rule his creation and were crowned with a glory and honor special to being creatures in God’s own image.  Yet the crown has fallen from our heads.  We have sinned.  The nature of Imago Dei with which God made us is now twisted, distorted, perverted.  And so we twist and distort and pervert the glory and honor He has made us to have.  We need to be restored.

We made it to my sister’s in Redding late last night.  I finished listening to The Last Battle as we made our way up from Monterey to Yuba City where we ate dinner at Subway with my childhood friend Lori.  Lori and I met each other in first grade and have kept in touch and been friends ever since.  That doesn’t happen very often.  She and her little girl Lily are a joy!  I think there should be a book titled Lori and Lily.

From the moment I woke up this morning until a couple hours ago I’ve been enjoying the cool weather, beautiful surroundings, and, most of all, watching my sons and nephews fish, craw dad hunt, ride bikes, laugh, wrestle, and play together.

Tomorrow my mom will join us here.  It’s so good to see my sister and brother in law’s fervor for God’s word and God’s ways to be taught and lived and learned in their house, with their kids.  Truly I’m getting to see the work of God I got to participate in all those years past praying.  What a gift!!!

Quieted,
Sheila

I’m the crazy singing woman in a red Honda

It’s too late and I’m too tired, but after tomorrow I probably will be using all my writing time doing this NaNoWriMo challenge, so I better post now.

I listened to this song over and over and over again on the way to work. I blared it loudly and sang just as loudly with my hand stretched out into the crisp fall air. I paused it at one point and just shouted over and over again, as loud as I could:

For all your goodness I will keep on singing
For all YOUR goodness I will keep on singing
For ALL your goodness I will keep on singing
For all your GOODNESS I will keep on singing…
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

 I’m sure someone saw me and thought I was crazy.  That’s ok.  I was arguing with my soul.  I was charging my soul, “Bless the LORD oh my soul!  Bless the Lord!”  I held my hand against my gut and said those words loudly to my LORD in defiance of my wavering soul.  I was saying, “It’s because you’re good that I’ll keep on singing.  Not because I’m good will I keep on singing. Or because people are good.  Not because I’m bad will I stop singing.  Or because people are bad.  But for all YOUR goodness, because you’re so good, I will keep on singing.”

There is a good God.  He is good.


You’re rich in love and you’re slow to anger
Your name is great and your heart is kind
For all your goodness i will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find
Bless the lord oh my soul -Matt Redman
Quieted,
Sheila

Praise for today

I praise You for Your sovereignty over the broad events of my life and over the details. With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental, and no experience is wasted. You hold in Your own power my breath of life and all my distiny. And every trial that You allow to happen is a platform on which You reveal Yourself, showing Your love and power, both to me and to others looking on. Thank You that I can move into the future nondefensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead, for You hold the future and You will always be with me, even to my old age… and through all eternity. – from 31 Days of Praise by Ruth Myers

Isaiah 51:3

My Jehoshaphat Moment

“Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, ‘A great multitude is coming against you…'”

“And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD…”

“Then Jehoshaphat stood…and said, ‘ O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?”

“For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

“And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever.”

“Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people… who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.”

From 2 Chronicles 20

Now’s my chance. Now’s my chance like Jehoshaphat to praise God BEFORE I see what to do or how to do it or how God’s gonna work in this situation in my life which appears like a great multitude against me; a multitude against whom I have no power.

Now’s my Jehoshaphat moment. It’s beyond me. It’s too much for me. I can’t stand. But I can proclaim praises. I can physically open my mouth and say, “Praise the LORD for His mercy endures forever!” I can say, “I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on You Lord!” I can say, “You are God… no one is able to withstand YOU!” I can declare, “You will work this situation together for my good as one who loves You (not that my love is anything but a response to Your love for me), and is called according to Your purpose to conform me to the image of Your Son.”

So that’s what I’m doing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not brave and strong. I’m afraid, like Jehoshaphat. I’m broken. I’m overwhelmed with what is against me. I’m trembling. But now’s my chance to let my Mountain-Moving Savior be seen. He wouldn’t be seen if there were no mountains. He wouldn’t be my Deliverer if there were no terrible, drowning waves to rescue me from.

So here’s what I’m going to sing… wanna join me?

Everyone needs compassion,
Love that’s never failing;
Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness,
The kindness of a Saviour;
The Hope of nations.

Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is
Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me,
All my fears and failures,
Fill my life again.

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in,
Now I surrender.

My Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see,
We’re singing for the glory of the risen
King…Jesus

Isaiah 51:3

From Elizabeth Elliot

Responsible to Praise

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” – Luke 23:47

We cannot always or even often control events, but we can control how we respond to them. When things happen which dismay or appall, we ought to look to God for his meaning, remembering that He is not taken by surprise nor can his purposes be thwarted in the end. What God looks for is those who will worship Him. Our look of inquiring trust glorifies Him.

One of the witnesses to the crucifixion was a military officer to whom the scene was surely not a novelty. He had seen plenty of criminals nailed up. But the response of this Man who hung there was of such an utterly different nature than that of the others that the centurion knew at once that He was innocent. His own response then, rather than one of despair that such a terrible injustice should take place, or of anger at God who might have prevented it, was praise (Lk 23:47 NEB).

This is our first responsibility: to glorify God. In the face of life’s worst reversals and tragedies, the response of a faithful Christian is praise–not for the wrong itself certainly, but for who God is and for the ultimate assurance that there is a pattern being worked out for those who love Him.

Oh may the pattern of His innocence be worked out in me!

So glad He found me ,

Isaiah 51:3