Praising through the Loss
Have you ever been in a position where it felt like you were losing? Like as Christians, if we are being honest, there is this sense that “YAY! Christ won the battle.” But then we look around us and all we see is us losing. Whether it’s things like getting laid off, or a sickness coming upon you or a loved one. Maybe for some of us it’s more of an internal battle with the mind, we battle with negative thoughts depression or anxiety. Now for those of you who don’t know, as a church we decided to take time and do 21 days of fasting and praying, and I know the devil is going to try to hit you with everything he has, on the outside and the inside, but how are we to fight back? How can we fight back this feeling of losing, when we know that we, through Christ have won?”
One word. Praise. Now praise is more powerful than we can even imagine. Let us break down praise a little bit, for people who don’t know and to remind myself what it is—pastors need to be reminded stuff too. Praise is talking about how good a person is. You can praise someone for what they did. For example, to my fiancé, Natali—I still really like saying that—I praised her for being an amazing girlfriend for taking me to my favorite restaurant. She did something for me and I praised her, but notice praise isn’t centered around what a person does but who they are. What they do is a result of who they are. There are times when I look at Natali and we are doing nothing special, but I still praise her. Do you get where I am going with this?
We don’t have to praise God just when he does nice stuff for us. That is more like thanking God. Praising God is telling Him how wonderful He is. So why all this talk about praise being a weapon? Praise is a weapon because it does two things for us. One, praise reminds the enemy. Praise reminds the enemy that the enemy has lost the battle in this great controversy, that his time is short! Two, praise also reminds us—and trust me, we need reminding. Praise reminds us the God we serve, and reminds us that we have won the battle, through Christ Jesus, in this great controversy. And when we are remind of God’s character we begin to see His hand working in our lives and in the lives of those around us, which will bring us great joy in the midst of a losing situation. Paul and Silas demonstrated this very well when in prison. They praise so much that the chains and the prison cells wanted to join them.
My appeal to us this week is simple, let’s try to praise more. For myself even as a pastor, I still get frustrated and I can easily get in a mood where I feel like I am losing, but God has to remind me to Praise Him, and I need to learn to listen. Do you have a specific situation where you feel as though you are losing? Take time even right now to lift God above what ever it is that you are facing and you will be surprise as to how God opens your eyes to seeing how He is working through the midst of that. Blessings and Happy Week!