If I’m going to get organized in life, I have to know what my priorities are. What is most important? What must be addressed first?

In prayer, most of the time (emergencies excepted), the priority is God- relating to Him and understanding who He is.

You can’t pray trustingly if you don’t know Him well.

So, how do you get to know Him well?

1) Meet Him daily in His Word (Scripture).

2) Praise Him for what you do know (C.S. Lewis says that we praise the things/people we love). You can do this by taking some Scripture and re-wording it so that it is a conversation between you and God.

Exercise:

Take this Psalm and pray it to God. See what happens in you and in your prayertime.

I sing to You, Lord a new song- one that I am learning just now.

I sing to You, Lord, and watch for all the earth to join me!

I sing to you Lord, bless Your name!

I proclaim the good tidings of Your salvation for me from day to day.

I  tell of Your glory to my friends and family- about what you have done for me and the nations.

I tell of Your wonderful deed among all the peoples.

For great are You, Lord and greatly to be praised.

Psalm 96:1-4 personalized

Here’s a challenge: Write this scripture down and offer it in praise to God several times a day. How does the frequent praise affect your own heart?

My prayer buddy, Seung, celebrates firsts.

She celebrates God’s goodness towards her church family on the first day of each month.

She celebrates God’s goodness towards her students on the first school day each week.

Each time a first of some sort comes around, Seung celebrates God’s goodness.

What a healthy and Scriptural thing!

God tells us it is a good thing to give thanks to Him. The Bible is full of Scriptures reminding us of His goodness:

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…

Psalm 33:5 …the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord

Psalm 27:13  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

What firsts can you celebrate? How can you celebrate God’s goodness?

Jude 24-25

²⁴Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

²⁵To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

I love these verses!

The word that keeps snagging my attention is majesty.

I looked it up in the lexicon to see what it means:

Majesty is the Greek word megalosyne. Megalosyne means “magesty”.

Pretty straight forward.

So, when we pray Jude 24-25 and offer up majesty to God- maybe we should think about this:

God, King of the Universe, adopted us as His heirs.

We have been made His children.

Therefore, we are of the noblesse.

If we are nobility, maybe we need some nobility training.

Here is another scripture (shared by our pastor today) that sheds more light:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9 (biblegateway.com)

We are:

Chosen

Royal

Holy

There it is again. Royalty.

We are royalty. A royal person carries him/herself with majesty.

Imagine yourself as majestic. Shoulders back, head up, dignity, bestowing grace and mercy on others.

How lovely.

If we go about majestically bestowing grace and mercy on others, daily we can offer service up to God in thanksgiving for what He has given us.

What a prayer:

Father in Heaven, thank you for making me Your child. Thank you that you made me one of Your Royal Priesthood. The acts of grace You have given me strength to do today, I offer up to you in gratitude.

My daughter is getting married in two weeks. We are celebrating! The spring flowers are preparing to bloom. We are celebrating! The migrating songbirds are resting and singing as they head north. We are celebrating!

The best celebration of all time is described in Revelation 5. It describes the Lamb of God approaching God’s throne and receiving His book. It is such a profound moment that when the Lamb (Jesus) takes the book, everyone falls down and begins to sing praise to God. Here are some of those who were celebrating:

-the 4 beasts that stay at the throne

-the 24 elders

-at least 100,002,000 angels

-every creature in heaven

-every creature on earth

-every creature in the sea

Here is some of what they sang together: “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”

Think about it! What a celebration!

Our earthly celebrations are warm ups for that great day. What can you celebrate today?

C.S. Lewis, in Reflections on the Psalms gave our praise to God the comparison to his dog barking praise of Lewis’s books. Not necessary for Lewis to have his dog’s approval. God does not need our approval in order to feel fulfilled.

Lewis’s conclusion, then, opened my eyes! He went back to the catechism (which I, like many folks, do not have experience with). The catechism is memorized by children and new believers in many Christian denominations. The first thing to memorize is this:

What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Lewis points out that glorifying God and enjoying Him are the same thing. Praising God unites us with Him. Our praise of Him is the vehicle He uses in giving us joy and love.

Think about the earthly things you enjoy- a good joke, a beautiful sunset, a baby’s laugh- you probably find yourself wanting to celebrate it by laughing or sharing it with others.

That is what our praise for God is:

We love Him and show it by an offering of ourselves by our words. He then fulfills that offering by giving us His joy and love.

Next time you have a chance to earnestly praise Him, watch your own soul at the end. See if you are enjoying Him. It is His gift to you.

Across the azure sky

It calls Command Performance

From creation standing by

Celebrations of crimson dance

On leaves who wave goodbye

Coruscations from diamond dew

On grass-blades not-yet dry

The audience of me

A-wondering to spy

Creation declaring the glory of God

While I am standing by.

Cloudy night

Profusions of cicadas celebrating

An undulating glee club- arpeggios, forte and piano

Crowds of crickets and katydids join in

Choristers of joyous staccato

Now peepers

Chanteuses with sustained soprano

Euphonious earth-bound chorale

Why do they sing so?

Could it be earth-bound need? Calling for mates? Warning off foes?

Not so- they pay homage to their Creator!

An inkling of the heavenly choir

Shall we join?

Gray mist looms over corn and fallow field

Atmosphere crouches:

thick with heat

Yet His Golden Radiance perforates:

ubiquitous, unruffled

Sparkling up dewy weeds:

fields of sapphire, topaz, and diamond

Wrens are trilling call-and-response:

a liturgy of praise

God is in His Heaven

He is what is right in the world.

One sometimes-surprising “down” during the lovely spring season is the feeling of loss and failure. The sun is bursting, flowers are glorying, trees are greening. Life and fresh starts abound.

“Then WHY don’t I feel better?”

“I should feel better. That makes me feel guilty- so I feel worse!”

It is frustrating to think we should feel encouraged but don’t. I want to share with you some ways that God has helped me deal with “not feeling better”.

Lamentations

There are times of grief, sorrow, rejection, loss, pain or trauma in all our lives. In counseling, we talk about these things openly and safely. In prayer, we do the same with God. We tell Him how we feel- openly, honestly, messily. He knows anyway and he cares.

It is helpful to read a Psalm of Lamentation (look at Psalm 31, Psalm 59, Psalm 74, Psalm 80)- read it to yourself, then to God.

Then ask someone to pray with you, too.

Sacrifice of Praise

There are times when things are irritating and pesky- folks not pulling their weight at work, kids leaving junk all over the house, endless chores. These are the things that make us feel irritable, whiny and snippy.

These are like “little foxes that spoil the vine”. They hold no eternal value and if we get our mind on something else, we forget it.

This it time to pull out Hebrew 13:15-

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. (NIV)

We don’t feel like praising God. That is why it is a sacrifice.

But when we make that sacrifice, we are pulled back to where we belong- living with God, thinking about him and his works and his love.

The sacrifice of praise honors God and changes us.