Praise God!

So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I’ve been thinking about a “Christianese” phrase that gets tossed around a lot. Thinking about this common phrase has brought me to question when and why we actually say this.

I suppose that there are many ways to say “Praise God,” or “Praise the Lord.” But we hear it a bunch from “Spiritual” people, don’t we?

“He got a new job!” “Well, Praise the Lord!”

“She bought a house!” “Oh, Praise God!”

“They’re finally engaged!” “That’s awesome! Praise God!”

Okay, I’m NOT saying that it is bad to say this (somewhat clichéd) phrase, but I’m simply objecting to the when and the why.

For example, if my house burns down, am I going to get a bunch of calls the next day from my friends saying “Praise the Lord!”? Um, in this day and age, probably not. Because we, as 21st century Christians, tend to praise God for things that make us happy. (Funny thing. Kind of ironic, seeing that we are always saying that earthly things don’t matter.)

Since when do we only praise God about happy things? Since when do we only say “Praise the Lord” about things that we like and decide to be thankful for?

Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

I think that we all know that life isn’t always easy or pleasant. Therefore, ‘continually’ must mean always, and if life isn’t always easy, then that means that no matter what we are to praise God.

No matter what.

Or, how about this verse?

Psalm 150:6 states, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”

Since every person has breath, this applies to all of us.

Everything and everyone and always.

Doesn’t sound very subjective to me.

See, it’s absolutely wonderful to praise God about good things. But we also must praise Him in the hard things. Do you want to know why?

God ALWAYS has a plan. He is ALWAYS in control. He is ALWAYS sovereign. He is ALWAYS God, and is ALWAYS worthy of praise. He never changes, so we should praise Him consistently. He is constant, and so should our praise to Him be.

(Cool side note: Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m listening to Hillsong’s new album, Empires. And a wonderful song came on for the first time that I’m hearing it, called Even When it Hurts (Praise Song). You wanna know what it’s about? Praising God, even when it hurts. *jaw drops*)

God is good, all the time. No exceptions! Let us praise Him with every word that comes out of our mouths, in every circumstance. He is worthy of our praise. ALWAYS.

*aj