I wrote a blog last week about “Becoming Fixed On Praise”.  Sometimes “keeping our praise on” is not easy.

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give (confess) thanks to His name.  Hebrews 13:15

A “sacrifice of praise” appears to be an oxymoron. Anything sacrificed in the Bible was offered up and killed. How can such a beautiful word be associated with sacrificial offerings? Maybe if we turned it around and called it a “praise of sacrifice”, it would make more sense. Praise doesn’t carry a death sentence, but the one offering it, the worshiper does! Paul Billheimer relates –

One must sacrifice his own judgment, his own opinion, his own evaluation of what is right and good, and “praise God always for all things” including the good, bad and indifferent.

The most difficult thing to do when all hell is breaking loose is to praise God. Every reflex tells us to blame our circumstances, blame people and accuse God of malfeasance. We learn through the story of Job – Satan believes that if he sends enough pain, sorrow, and adversity our way, we will collapse under the weight and curse God. Satan’s chief accusation towards God is always… if good is removed from God’s children, they will hate Him. Satan sees to it everyday …. to apply negative pressure to our lives to get us to agree with him. Have you been guilty of agreeing with him lately?

Conversely, the Lord believes in His children. He believes if pressure is applied to our lives, we will be driven closer to Him. So when the going gets tough and it always does… the tough believer should offer a “sacrifice of praise”.  This means we are dead to making accusations against God. We refuse to follow Satan’s logic and blame our Creator. A sacrifice of praise is choosing then to believe God is good. God is great and all His dealings with us personally are just and right. We are dead to believing any differently…no matter what the outward circumstances dictate.

One other issue… A “sacrifice of praise” isn’t really a sacrifice or praise until it leaves our lips. The goodness and greatness of God must be our confession in difficult times. If you want to be one of those believers who drives Satan crazy, then praise God when everybody else has already cursed Him and left. Praise God when you don’t understand, when you can’t make sense out of life. Choose to praise God when every bit of physical evidence says God is wrong and Satan is right. Choose by loosening your lips to praise God anyway!

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor