What is Praise? 2

There is one pivotal point I must make even as I write about very many aspects of our Christian life.

This is the point at which Christianity diverts from all other beliefs and religions and the single reason it is treated as the enemy of the world and its systems.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, … (Psalm 2: 1, 2)

Christianity is relational as far as God is concerned.

Did Christ have to be born and live amongst us, really?

 Was He not crucified even before the world was created?

The simple reason for that was because God intended for us to have a relationship with Him. That is why Christ lived amongst us before He died for us.

He did not do so for the sake of us following a set of rules. He did it so that we can have God close to us and have Him involved in our lives.

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? (Deuteronomy 4:7)

That was God’s whole idea of choosing Abraham from the nations.

This in effect means that anything God does for us is for the purpose of enriching our relationship with Him.

We are deceived when we think that God is about God demonstrating is superiority over any other god when He performs miracles because He is not in competition with anybody since He created everything, even those so-called gods.

A father does not fight to prove his fatherhood to his children unless he is unsure of his paternity.

Everything he does is due to the fact that he is the father of those children.

But he will delight in the fact that his children relate to him as their father.

In this context then, praise is what happens when a toddler or infant immediately falls asleep when they fall in the arms of their father because it demonstrates a peace that is the product of complete faith and rest in his father’s arms.

I love children. Or probably I should say that children love me.one day in public transport I was seated next to a young couple with a child who was crying so pitifully.

I looked at the child and told them that he was sleepy.

They said that he has refused to sleep and so can’t be sleepy.

So I took the child and he immediately slept.

They were amazed and told me it was impossible.

I told them that a child can know safe hands to sleep in.

They wanted to prove me wrong and so the mother took back the child who immediately woke up with a scream and refused to be rocked to sleep.

They then gave him back to me and he immediately went back to sleep, waking up almost an hour later as we were getting back to the city centre.

I explained to them that as new parents they are still learning to hold the child in a way that can be interpreted by the child as safe and so should not despair.

Their amazement at this was astounding.

Do you realise that this is what God expects from us?

Our greatest expression of praise to God is our rest in His arms.

Though that child could not speak or even look at me since both times he slept immediately he fell into my arms, his response was very clear statement of praise.

You are good. You are safe. You are strong. I trust you. That is what the child was saying by sleeping in my arms.

Isn’t this what God is expecting from us? Isn’t this what our praise should be like?

It is the words proceeding from our restful position in His arms that can be called praise.

Just assuming the child could have spoken.  He most likely could have pleaded with me to start living with them so that he could enjoy that rest all the time. Or probably asked me to take him with me.

I have many times held children who have to be wrenched out of my hands by their mothers because they simply refused to leave me.

What we sing as we rest in God’s revelation is our praise to Him. What we do in response to that revelation is our worship.

I hope I have not made it too simple. But I wanted to make it practical.

We must therefore thoroughly acquaint ourselves with His revelation (Bible) to be able to properly offer praise to Him since God does not expect us to be instinctive as toddlers in our relationship with Him.