Praising God When We Don't Feel Like It

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This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.

And now, here's James. Well, today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about praising God when you don't feel like it. So, James, you just said before we went live that this is something we see the Scriptures talking about.

So, how so? Well, before we go there, let's talk about why this matters so much for a moment, because often we feel like praise is something that happens spontaneously. You know, we love something or we're excited about it, and this praise just kind of jumps from our mouths, almost as if, you know, we have no control over it. Yeah, like a football game when someone makes a touchdown. Yeah, that's the idea. But if we look at praise that way, we may feel like it is something that only happens when we feel like it, something that we really don't have too much control over.

Oh yeah, I have. So, we feel like praising God when we like the song we're singing in church, or when that song comes on the radio, it just moves us. Yeah, right, right. And there's nothing wrong with those moments. We should praise God then. But if we only praise God like that, we're going to miss out on something so good, and our praise will actually kind of stay in a shallow place. You see, when we praise God, when we don't feel like it, he often changes the way we feel. He lifts us out of our challenging places and gives us a whole new perspective. Oh yeah, and that's such a good place to be, right?

I mean, let's go back to where we started. You said that you see that in Scripture, so how so? Well, you see a lot. You see praising God not only as an expression, but also as a command, like Psalm 150 that says, Praise God in this sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens, praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his surpassing greatness. You know, so it's a command. Or Hebrews 13, 15, right, that talks about offering God a sacrifice of praise. Right, right, a New Testament expression. So it's not about a physical sacrifice like they made in the temple. It's about, as the verse says, fruit of lips that openly confess his name.

So that sacrifice has to do with choosing to say, I believe this, I believe you, I love you, Lord, and you are always deserving of praise, worthy of praise. Yeah, and that's an interesting thing to say about God also. I mean, if you think about it, worthy of praise. Of course he is.

I mean, there's no one like him. But, you know, why do we have to point that out? Because, you know, we need to. I mean, we need to be reminded that, especially in this broken world.

Yeah, exactly. And that's where, again, this becomes so helpful, because the theme that you see running through Scripture so much is one of determination with praise. That phrase, I will praise you, is something you see all over the place. I will praise you, O Lord. Psalm 9-2 starts out.

Or Psalm 145, just listen. I will exalt you, my God the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever. And then, you know what it says next?

Hmm, what? Well, great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom. So you see, all of this tied together with this expression of I will praise God. I will, I will, I will. Like in Psalm 34-1, I will extol the Lord at all times. Or Psalm 138-1, I will praise you with all my heart. Wow, you know, I see what you mean about this being something.

It's really a decision we make. Yeah, yeah, David isn't, you know, praising God yet. He's saying that he will.

He's going to. And you see this in other places where the Psalm wasn't written by David, like Psalm 146-2. I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Well, James, do you know what comes to mind as we talk about this?

What's that? God has placed all of these reminders in his Word because apparently we need to do this, right? We need to praise him because, you know, sometimes that's the only thing that will keep us sane in the sane world. And I can't help but think, you know, my favorite book is the Song of Songs. And a constant reminder in that book is, you know, it says that my beloved grazes among the lilies.

Well, lilies in Hebrew is the word praise. And so it's a beautiful thing to think, man, if I need him to come, which I always do, by the way, that praise is going to bring him in, you know, to the party. Wow, wow. Do you see the important thing in all of this is that, again, God is at the center of it. It's not our circumstances or how things are going for us in the moment, you know, whether they're going well or not. In some of these places where you see that expression, I will praise, it's precisely when things are not going well. But praising God regardless has a way of reminding us that he's greater, that he's there no matter what's going on. He will be there for us, and he loves us and cares about us. So sometimes that means that we praise him through tears, but we have to keep praising him because as we do, our eyes are placed on him and lifted beyond ourselves in a way that matters so much. But it's not that we're doing that when it happens, you know, when that change occurs in us.

It's him. He has a way of coming in and picking us up when we choose to praise him. And we have to make the choice to do it, but once we do, we find that he meets us there. You know, like, I mean, like the Song of Songs like you were saying, he meets us there, and that's all that matters. Yeah, it's really at a place of faith, right? You know, I know that you're afflicting me and that you love me, right?

I love it. Yeah, it's so true. I mean, there have been so many times in my life where, you know, I just decided to love and praise him even though I, you know, I really didn't feel like it. And those times actually became really precious to me because when he meets you there, I mean, in his presence is fullness of joy. Yeah, yeah, that's it.

That's it. And we don't want to miss that. Not ever. So, James, how about closeness with a prayer like that, okay? Well, Lord, we will praise you. Help us to praise you, Lord. We know that we need to praise you more, and so we do right now. We praise you because you are always worthy of praise, because you are good, because regardless of our circumstances, oh, you are there.

You are there. Father, thank you for your perfect love through your Son. Thank you for your Spirit. Thank you for your goodness that keeps us going and will bring us home. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.