{This final week of 2015 we will be re-visiting some of my personal favorite themes on which our wonderful writers have shared with us throughout this past year. I hope that you (as I was, too!) will be encouraged and reminded of God’s faithfulness and loving care through their inspired words.}
Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times
offer up to God a sacrifice of praise,
which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge
and confess and glorify His name.
Hebrews 13:15
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Oh, what encouragement I have received this week as I’ve read daily through the Seeking Him devotional! (You, too?) Ann, Ahmee, Clella, Cynda, and Tina have each written devotionals reminding me of the importance of offering my praise—a sacrifice of praise—to our wonderful Father God and drawing me closer to the One Who I do seek to praise and glorify!
In The Fruit Of Lips, Cynda took a good in-depth look at just what a ‘sacrifice of praise’ is and asked a really good question…along with a few answers she found.
“But why are we compelled (Hebrews 13:15) to do it ‘constantly and at all times’? Here are just a few of the reasons I found:
- it glorifies God and pleases Him
- (because of) His enduring love and goodness
- because Jesus did
- it is our shared inheritance
But, I think my favorite reason for giving thanks is to tell others and remind myself of all He has done in my life.“
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Then, Ann gave us some great reasons in Praise At All Times just WHY we praise God—
- for what He has done (Psalm 9:11)
- a four-fold reason— because we are “…a chosen people, a loyal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God….” (1 Peter 2:9)
- and, as a commandment (Psalm 63:7)
She wrote, “So we are all to praise God; let us make a choice of doing so in the morning …in the afternoon …and in the evening time!”
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Clella shared a wonderful translation of Hebrews 13:15 with us in Proclaim Allegiance To His Name. She wrote,
“The New Living Translation says it this way:
Therefore, let us offer through Jesus
a continual sacrifice of praise to God,
proclaiming our allegiance to His Name.
The phase ‘proclaiming our allegiance to His Name’ popped out at me. It sounded so different than the other translations that refer to ‘the fruit of lips that confess His Name.’ I just had to do a little research to understand what this verse is really saying.
– to “confess” God’s Name is to declare, state, acknowledge His Name
– to “proclaim allegiance” is to announce publicly, or to declare something one considers important with due emphasis, which in this case would be one’s loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior.”
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In Verbal Sacrifice, Ahmee brought us back to the central element in Hebrews 13:15 of ‘sacrifice.’ She reminded us of reasons we have to offer our sacrifice of praise.
“Those days when you don’t feel like giving praise are the days when praise is a sacrifice. When we praise God even in our less-than-favorable moments we are saying to Him — and those around us —
- God is our God
- we trust Him with our lives
- we trust in Someone bigger than us
- we have the Almighty on our side to fight for us”
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And in Giving Thanks, Tina encouraged us to remember how abundantly blessed we are here in the USA.
“The Pilgrims were so grateful to have a land to call their own and the freedom to worship God. After such a hard crossing and a hard harvest, they decided to celebrate and praise God for what they had. Let us do the same. Continuous praise should be on our lips and in our thoughts.
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