Devotion 2: Continual Praise
One of my favorite things to do when I have free time and when I have (hopefully) been a responsible adult and taken care of all that needs to be done in the house, is watch movies. I will literally watch just about any movie. I love going to the movies, and I love rewatching movies. It is one of my favorite things to do. An interesting thing about movies is that we get to see the whole character arc of the people we are watching. Most of the time, the story is completed when the movie ends. We see the main character’s introduction, the struggle they go through, the montage of how they fix it, and then, at the end, everything is resolved and they all live happily ever after.
Sometimes, we can think that will happen for us in real life. We act like we can reduce our walk with God to a movie plot where all we need to do is say a well-meaning prayer, be part of a passionate worship night, and we will be all set in our Christian walk. Yet, this is not the case. In the Scriptures, we are taught to continually offer up praise to God and live for His glory. 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.” It is important for us to understand that our praise, worship, and reverence for the Lord is something we should need and want to do “continually” for the rest of our lives.
To maybe help make the example clearer, let’s think of marriage. If a husband and wife are married, should they only profess their love for each other on their wedding day? Or on their anniversary each year? How deep, strong, and healthy of a marriage would that be? The same is true for our relationship with God. When you have a real experience with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and your dead soul is awakened to the beauty of the grace of God, there is no other way to live. Every fiber of your being, everything that you do, should be an opportunity to continually bring worship and praise to God. It makes me think of a verse in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In the big and small things in your life, do it for His glory. Let us continually praise Him.