The nature of praise is an offering – we need to offer a sacrifice of praise, even from our suffering, pain, and loss; when we praise the Lord in every situation, we display Christ’s victory and we overcome spiritual attacks.
When the Bible speaks of praise, it says that we need to offer up through Christ a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing His name (Heb. 13:15).
Many times we are not in the mood to praise the Lord, and especially when we go through sufferings, pains, and things we don’t understand, it is even harder to praise. But it is in such situations that the Lord wants us, His children, to praise Him.
Actually, our praise needs to be offered up continually, day and night; prayer may stop, but praise cannot cease. Praising the Lord is not merely in our mind – it has to be the fruit of our lips – we need to open our mouth and praise the Lord, even give a ringing shout to praise Him.
We need to love the Lord with all our strength, and we need to praise Him! The more we praise the Lord, the more strength we get. We shouldn’t spare our throat or lips but praise the Lord with our mouth!
In the book of Psalms we see many praises to the Lord; in this book, at the same time, we see a lot of sufferings. God wants us, His people, to praise Him not only when we go through good things and we have success, but all the more when we go through trying situations and have our feelings wounded.
The praising ones are the very ones who were led through trying situations and whose feelings have been wounded, yet God perfected praise out of them (Psa. 8:1-2). Hallelujah!
We may go through situations that we don’t like, we may be in an environment that is trying and rough, and we may have much suffering; we may be so afflicted that we cannot even pray – so in such situations, we should simply offer a sacrifice of praise to the Lord.
It is relatively easy to say, Praise the Lord! when we’re doing well, but when we’re going through things we don’t understand, it is harder to praise. However, it is here, in these sufferings and afflictions that the Lord can perfect praise, and a deeper praise will rise from our being.
The loudest praise often comes from those who pass through hardships, adverse environments, and feelings that are hurt and wounded; such praise is also very pleasing to God and is blessed by Him.
May the Lord perfect our praise, and may we learn to praise the Lord at all times!
We should Offer a Sacrifice of Praise to God even when we Suffer and are Afflicted
When we speak of praising the Lord, many times we may have a lofty and high way of considering it, thinking that it is when the Lord does great things for us, we should praise Him.
But in the eyes of God the nature of praise is an offering, a sacrifice. Just as in the Old Testament the offerer had a bull or a lamb, and they offered it up to God – they let it go, and the animal changed ownership and was sacrificed for God’s satisfaction – so we today need to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
To offer a sacrifice of praise means we don’t gain anything but rather, we suffer loss, and God is satisfied. When we lose something, when we go through trials and tribulations, when we are in situations that we don’t understand, we need to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
God wants us to praise Him all the time, and especially in the midst of our sufferings. We shouldn’t praise God only when we get a better job, we have a child, we get a new car, or something good happens to us.
We should praise the Lord when all these things happen, but such a praise is not considered a sacrifice of praise. When we suffer loss, when we do not understand what is going on and we suffer, and yet we praise the Lord, this is a sacrifice of praise, and God delights in it and blesses it.
We all may have experienced loss, pain, and suffering, but did we praise the Lord when these things happened? When we have tears running down our cheeks, when we are filled not with laughter but with sadness, when we don’t have joy but pain, and when we don’t gain but have a loss, we need to praise the Lord.
At such times we may not be able to utter a prayer, and if we do, we feel even more down; we should simply praise the Lord. Our situation may be beyond our comprehension, we may not understand why this or that happened to us, and we may even suffer a tragedy, yet the only thing we can do is praise the Lord.
When we are unable to reason or rationalise the situation we’re in, we can only use faith and look to God to praise Him. We may even praise the Lord for what we go through and for what we don’t understand.
This is the principle of a sacrifice and an offering. This is what the Lord delights in, that we offer a sacrifice of praise to God in all our circumstances and situations. May there be a lot of such praise among us in the local churches.
May we not look at the environment or the situations, and may we not consider one another according to the things that we go through, but may we simply praise the Lord.
Nothing matures us as much as praise; when we praise the Lord in the midst of suffering and afflictions, we are being matured. On one hand we’re being stripped, and on the other, we are being matured.
Lord Jesus, we want to offer You a sacrifice of praise even when we’re suffering or are in painful situations. Oh Lord, remind us to praise You at all times, no matter our condition, our circumstances, and our feelings. Amen, Lord, even when we don’t understand what’s going and we can’t rationalise what is happening, may we still open our mouth to offer a sacrifice of praise to God! Praise the Lord for all things – whether good or bad! Praise the Lord for our circumstances and for all those around us. Lord, we still praise You!
Praise is the Way to Display Christ’s Victory and Overcome Spiritual Attacks
The way to display Christ’s victory is to praise the Lord; the way to overcome spiritual attacks is to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
It is a spiritual principle that Satan is afraid of our prayers; when we kneel down to pray and keep our set times of prayer with the Lord, Satan attacks and does his best to frustrate us.
But another spiritual fact is that Satan’s greatest attacks are aimed not at our prayers but at our praise. Satan attacks our prayers and our praise. His ultimate goal is to stop our praises to God.
Our prayer is our fighting the spiritual warfare, and our praise is our declaring the victory. When we pray, we fight, and when we praise, we declare God’s victory. Whenever we praise the Lord, Satan flees; therefore, he hates our praise and he wants to stop it.
Satan uses all his strength to stop our praising. We need to realise that Satan hates our praise, and we should not stop praising the Lord even when we suffer adverse environments or downtrodden feelings.
An example of someone who was not afraid of Satan’s attacks but praised God in the midst of it is Paul and Silas in Acts 16; after they were arrested and put in prison, even in the innermost prison, about midnight they were praying and singing praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (see Acts 16:25).
Paul and Silas offered a sacrifice of praise to God in the jail; the wounds on their bodies were not yet healed, their pain was not soothed, their feet were in the stocks, and they were shut in an inner jail of the Roman Empire.
What was there to be joyful about? Why were they singing – they were in prison, with their feet in stocks, and still painful and in the inner jail?
These were two persons who realised that, no matter what happens to them, God is still in heaven, He is still on the throne, and nothing can change that.
Their environment may have changed, their feelings may have changed, and their bodies may be suffering, but God was still sitting on the throne. Therefore, God is still worthy of their praise. Hallelujah!
This is to offer a sacrifice of praise to God, displaying Christ’s victory and overcoming any spiritual attacks. This kind of praise – the praise arising out of pain and loss – is a sacrifice of praise, and this is a victory.
There may be nothing to be joyful about in our environment, and all we may encounter is just suffering and loss, but we can still praise the Lord! When we offer a sacrifice of praise to God, the doors of our jail will open, our chains will fall off, and salvation will come in.
When Paul and Silas praised the Lord as they were praying, the doors of the jail opened, their chains fell off, and even the jailer and his whole family were saved in a joyful way (Acts 16:19-34).
When we pray, we may still be in the midst of our situation, and nothing may change. When we praise the Lord, we soar above our situation.
The more we pray, the more we may be bound and pressed by our situation, but when we praise the Lord, nothing can touch us – we will soar above everything and everyone.
When we praise the Lord, offering Him a sacrifice of praise in the midst of our sufferings, our chains will fall of, we will soar above all things, and we declare Christ’s victory, overcoming any spiritual attacks.
Praise the Lord! Amen! Lord, we praise You for all things and in the midst of all things. You are in control. You know what is going on. Even when we’re suffering, in pain, and under pressure, we want to pray and praise You for all things! Amen, Lord, may we experience soaring above all things and all situations by offering You a sacrifice of praise! May we learn to have transcendent spirits by praising You for all things and above all things! Amen, Lord Jesus, we praise You! Even when there’s nothing here on earth for us and our portion is just suffering, we acknowledge that You are still Lord, You are on the throne, and nothing can change that! Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 48, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (1),” ch. 16, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Spiritual Warfare of the Church as the New Man (2018 Memorial Day Conference), week 6, The Prayer of the Age to Fulfill God’s Economy and the Sacrifice of Praise to Display Christ’s Victory.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Praise Him! Praise Him! Christ is Victor! / He has won the victory! / Sin is judged, old Adam finished, / Full redemption now we see! / Vanquished all the evil powers / Through the cross triumphantly! (Hymns #124)
# Hallelujah! Sing to Jesus, / His the scepter, His the throne; / Hallelujah! His the triumph, / His the victory alone. / Hark, the songs of His redeemed ones / Thunder like a mighty flood: / Jesus out of every nation, / Hath redeemed us by His blood. (Hymns #125)
# O let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, / When sickness upon us is stealing, / No cordial like gladness our strength can restore, / For joy is the fountain of healing. / Then rejoice evermore, rejoice evermore, / It is better to sing than be sighing; / It is better to live than be dying; / So let us rejoice evermore. (Hymns #717)
About aGodMan
