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Good morning!

Why am I making such a big deal of praise recently? After reading the book Power in Praise that my friend sent me, I saw so much that was in my face my whole life but that I had never made a habit of actually doing.

I was pretty good at thanking God for what I considered to be blessings or good things, but I found myself pleading for Him to change things that had remained for years. Sometimes that pleading is discouraging because of several things. One is that I have a particular outcome in mind and unless that happens, it feels like God is slow or not going to answer me. Another is that it puts all the focus on the problem instead of how God might be in that problem doing far more than I imagine.

The brain switch that happens when I praise God FOR the thing I was pleading about puts  my focus onto Him. That is a much more positive and exhilarating mindset.

As many of you know, my jaw has been in a painful state for about 15 years. I have had many people pray for it and I have been to many many doctors and alternative therapies. While I see nothing wrong with any of this, I also know that it has caused me many “down days” as I felt perplexed by this ongoing situation.

As I began to praise God FOR this jaw that He created and FOR all He is doing, it shifted my mind off the outcome I think I must have (healing or pain relief) and onto God in hopeful expectation of what He is up to! I also notice that if the pain creeps up, I start praising God and  the pain dissipates.

Now, this is not a formula and it definitely cannot be a manipulation tool. Praising God is not to get a desired outcome for a particular situation. The whole point is to remind myself that He is God and He can do what He pleases! And maybe, just maybe, the best thing for me is to be so tightly tied to Him through those moments of pain that lead to praise that He can refine me through this unlikely (to me) path.

Yes, I do believe God wants healing. But He doesn’t stop short of the physical. He is the God who restores ALL things and the more I trust Him through active praise the more I am restored in unexpected ways!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21