{"id":18251,"date":"2014-03-03T00:20:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T05:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18251"},"modified":"2014-03-03T00:23:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T05:23:15","slug":"first-praise-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/03\/first-praise-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"First…Praise the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Praise the LORD! <\/span><\/strong>
\nOh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, <\/span><\/strong>
\n for His steadfast love endures forever! <\/span><\/strong>
\nWho can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, <\/span><\/strong>
\n or declare all His praise?\u201d <\/span><\/strong>
\nPsalms 106:1-2 ESV<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If when we drop to our knees and pray, what if our first words were those that showed praise to the Lord? \u00a0How would that affect the rest of our prayer? \u00a0Wouldn\u2019t our hearts be more likely to keep our wonderful God as our focus and keep us in tune to the fact that He is more important than the problems that we bring to Him? \u00a0Israel often messed up, yet God was faithful to them.<\/p>\n

The psalmist opens this psalm in wanting the emphasis to be on God\u2014praising Him and reminding the people of God\u2019s steadfast love before he went any further. \u00a0And to answer the psalmist\u2019s question, \u201cWho can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD or declare all His praise?\u201d well, we can try, but we would never ever be able to list ALL of His great deeds or ever be able to finish praising Him for Who He is and what He has done, is doing, or will do.<\/p>\n

When I am overwhelmed by God\u2019s goodness and faithfulness, my problems seem to diminish; and I rest on the fact that God is able. \u00a0He can take care of difficulties, problems, and unknowns. \u00a0Where I cannot, He can. \u00a0\u201cHe can\u201d so much better than all of us in all generations put together. \u00a0So, maybe our role in coming to God is to focus on Him and then, after we praise Him, lay our burdens and requests at His feet. \u00a0Be mindful to remember His faithfulness to you in the present and the past as you come to Him. \u00a0Remember how He has carried you when You have needed Him \u2013 even when you didn\u2019t deserve it. Remember how He forgave you when you asked for forgiveness when you messed up and sinned—even when you didn\u2019t deserve it. \u00a0And rest assured that He will continue to be faithful forever.<\/p>\n

Our circumstances will continue to change, but God never does! \u00a0Our response is to praise Him forever! \u00a0Praise Him in prayer! \u00a0Praise Him in life! \u00a0Praise Him in heaven!<\/p>\n

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Lord, we praise You! \u00a0O Lord, we thank You for loving us and giving us grace in spite of what we deserve! \u00a0We lay at Your feet the great concerns of our hearts in which the Holy Spirit is bringing to our hearts and minds at this very moment knowing You are able to take care of them, Lord! \u00a0Touch these matters in such a way that it is obvious to us and those around us that You intervened and made a difference. \u00a0We can all give You, and You alone, great glory and praise! \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 precious Name we pray. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever! Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all His praise?\u201d Psalms 106:1-2 ESV If when we drop to our knees and pray, what if our first words were those that showed praise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"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":[3175,3367,1287,425,1560,5586,3174],"class_list":["post-18251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-cheris-gaston","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-praise-the-lord","tag-psalms-1061-2","tag-seeking-him-devotional","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-4Kn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251","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\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18254,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251\/revisions\/18254"}],"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=18251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}