{"id":15769,"date":"2013-11-18T00:30:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T06:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15769"},"modified":"2013-11-17T10:45:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T16:45:55","slug":"intentional-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/18\/intentional-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"Intentional Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
\nAnd for His wonderful works to the children of men!
\nLet them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
\nAnd declare His works with rejoicing.
\nPsalms 107:21-22<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSay please. Say thank you. Give honor and credit to those where it\u2019s due\u2014 in sports; in life; at home; in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are some things I say to my children on a regular basis; these are things I need to remind myself of on a regular basis as well: \u00a0Give thanks… sacrifices of thanksgiving…declare His works with rejoicing.<\/p>\n

I think that so often we as people, that I as a Christian, don\u2019t give enough credit where it is due.<\/p>\n

I was journalling last night, writing about some of the things that have happened in my life over the past few days and years. \u00a0During this process (and after reading over some of what I had written) I realized that I had not given credit where it was due.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if I haven\u2019t thanked God personally for what He has done for<\/em> me, or even what He has done in<\/em> me but have I \u201csacrificed with thanksgiving?\u201d Have I \u201cdeclared His works with rejoicing?\u201d \u00a0Do other people, believers and non-believers alike, know Who I attribute my successes to? \u00a0It takes more than a quick \u201cThank God!\u201d \u00a0It takes an intentional act of declaration\u2014a sacrifice of praise.<\/p>\n

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifices of praise to God,
\nthat is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.
\nHebrews 13:15<\/p>\n

I know that God knows my heart. \u00a0He knows that I truly thank Him and appreciate all that He has done for me, but I want others to know, too. \u00a0I want God to not only know my heart but to hear my words as well. \u00a0I want to make intentional declarations of thanks.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father,
\nBring these Scriptures to mind when we give thanks. \u00a0Remind us to make intentional declarations and not simply rely on the fact that You know our hearts. \u00a0Thank You, Lord, for the gentle reminder You give us through Your written Word. \u00a0In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with rejoicing. Psalms 107:21-22 \u201cSay please. Say thank you. Give honor and credit to those where it\u2019s due\u2014 in sports; in life; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3367,4523,1287,425,4522,4518,4520,4266,4519,4521,3174,1075],"class_list":["post-15769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-declarations-of-thanks","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-give-credit-to-god","tag-hebrews-1315","tag-intentional-praise","tag-psalm-107","tag-psalms-10721-22","tag-sacrifices-of-thanksgiving","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tonya-ellison","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-46l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15770,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15769\/revisions\/15770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}