Kindling for Praise

As much as we try to keep God's praises in our minds, hearts, spirits and mouths there are times where we fall short. We are human, and it is hard for God's praise to continually be in our mouths. I am not talking about every second of the day because we would get nothing else said. I am referring to not giving praise on a daily basis. It is not that we don't want to give praise, but things in life have weighed down our minds and spirits making it difficult to kindle that fire from which praise is formed in us.

That is when we need kindling for our praise. Common sources of kindling often include:

• Reading the Bible
• Remembering what God has done for us
• Listening to praise and worship
• Seeing God's grace and mercy displayed in the lives of others

There are probably other sources of kindling for praise that are unique to the individual. Sometimes for me all I need to do is see a bright, sunny day with nature shining and basking in the glow of the sunshine. This reminds of the hymn, "How Great Thou Art" and then the praises begin to flow.



When you feel weighed down by things in this day to day life find kindling for praise. I don't know about you but praising God has an immediate side effect for me - I begin to get happy. As the kindling for praise creates a larger fire within us, the more we get into our praise until it consumes us. It is then we find that we are delighting ourselves in the LORD. When we delight in the LORD our desires will will come to us (Ps.37:4). In other words, when the praises go up, the blessings come down.

Another reason we should seek out kindling for our praise is because we don't want to have another filling the void of praise that we left. Jesus tells us this in Luke 19 when the Pharisees were trying to get Jesus to quiet the praises of His disciples,

"As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:37-40 NASB)

Do you want the stones to cry out because you failed to give praise? I don't. So when praise is not readily in your mouth, find that kindling to start the fire of praise that will burn within you, giving glory to God.