{"id":21978,"date":"2014-09-25T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21978"},"modified":"2014-09-25T00:26:33","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T04:26:33","slug":"never-lost-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/25\/never-lost-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"I Never Lost My Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16629\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\" alt=\"psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv\" width=\"341\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg 341w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">I lost some good friends along life&#8217;s way<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Some loved ones departed in heaven to stay but<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Thank God I didn&#8217;t lose everything<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> I&#8217;ve lost faith in people who said they care,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> The time of my crisis they were never there<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> But in my disappointment in my season of pain<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> One thing never wavered, one thing never changed<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">I never lost my hope, I never lost my joy,<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em> <span style=\"color: #800080;\"> I never lost my faith but, most of all, I never lost my praise<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">I&#8217;ve let some blessings slip away, and I lost my focus<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> And went astray, but thank God I didn&#8217;t lose everything<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> I&#8217;ve lost possessions that were so dear<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> And I lost some battles by walking in fear<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> But in the midst of my struggle, in my season of pain<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> One thing never wavered, one thing never changed<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">I never lost my hope, I never lost my joy,<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"color: #800080;\"> I never lost my faith but, most of all, I never lost my praise<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Praise, praise, praise, praise&#8230;most of all, I never lost my praise<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">My praise, still here, my praise still here<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Hallelujah! My praise is still here<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lBhUQNn_nn0?rel=0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Songwriter &#8211; Kurt Carr\/ Performed by the Charlotte Central Church of God Choir<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"> *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Oh, can you picture Job singing this song? \u00a0He lost loved ones and possessions. \u00a0He \u00a0lost faith in people who said they care and in his\u00a0time of crisis they were never there. \u00a0 But one thing never wavered&#8230;one thing never changed&#8212;he never lost his hope&#8230;he never lost his faith&#8230;he never lost his praise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There aren\u2019t too many records throughout the Scriptures which depict someone more deeply grieved and in mourning than the story of Job &#8220;&#8230;a blameless and upright man, fears God and turns away from evil.&#8221; \u00a0Right off in chapter one, we read of the horrific loss that Job experienced. \u00a0\u00a0Job was a man blessed by his God with \u201cseven sons and three daughters; 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very great body of servants.\u201d The Scriptures tell us that \u201cthis man was the greatest of all the men of the East.\u201d But, as we know, Satan purposed to take all that Job had in order to tempt him (verse 11) to turn away from and curse his God. \u00a0In one day, within a very short period of time, Job learns that all his flocks, practically every one of his servants, and each of his children has been taken from him. \u00a0However, Satan&#8217;s purpose was foiled because, &#8220;Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God&#8221; (verse 22). \u00a0Job kept his heart of worship and praise; his response to all this?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.<br \/>\nThen he fell to the ground in worship and said:<br \/>\n\u201cNaked I came from my mother\u2019s womb, and naked I will depart.<br \/>\nThe Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.\u201d<br \/>\nJob 1:20-22<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">He never lost his praise.<\/h3>\n<p>As the woman who sings this song shared with us, in her time of sadness and loss, God taught her about the &#8216;sacrifice of praise.&#8217; \u00a0 (Listen to her heart starting at :18 to 1:19.)<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">She never lost her praise.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God<br \/>\na sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips<br \/>\nthat thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.<br \/>\nHebrews 13:15<\/p>\n<p>Probably each of us has offered a &#8216;sacrifice of praise&#8217; at least once or twice in our lives&#8230;yes? \u00a0However, I am confronted by the higher standard that Hebrews 13:15 states: &#8220;let us <strong><em>constantly and at all times<\/em><\/strong> offer up to God a sacrifice of praise&#8230;.&#8221; \u00a0Other versions of this verse use the terms, &#8216;continually&#8230;always.&#8217; \u00a0That doesn&#8217;t leave much room for wiggling out of obedience, now does it?<\/p>\n<p>We are to <em><strong>constantly<\/strong> <\/em>{<em>always, continually, at all time<\/em>s} give to God our praise as a sacrifice&#8212;whether our circumstances are happy and joy-filled or not. \u00a0Even in those times where it looks like there is nothing left, we are to acknowledge all He has done, is doing, and will do to take care of us. \u00a0And when we struggle to maintain our joy and peace we can still\u00a0praise God for Who He is&#8230;He never changes (Malachi 3:6). \u00a0He never leaves us nor forsakes us (Deuteronomy 31:8). \u00a0He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)&#8230;which nothing can separate us from (Romans 8:38-39). \u00a0We should always praise Him for those things&#8230;and much, much, much more! \u00a0I believe that then we, too, will sing&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">I never lost my praise.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I lost some good friends along life&#8217;s way Some loved ones departed in heaven to stay but Thank God I didn&#8217;t lose everything I&#8217;ve lost faith in people who said they care, The time of my crisis they were never there But in my disappointment in my season of pain One thing never wavered, one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":16629,"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":[4937],"tags":[7411,235,2390,425,4518,7410,552,7414,2882,4932,5024],"class_list":["post-21978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs","tag-charlotte-church-of-god","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-deuteronomy-318","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hebrews-1315","tag-i-never-lost-my-praise","tag-jeremiah-313","tag-job-chapter-1","tag-malachi-36","tag-psalms-hymns-spiritual-songs","tag-romans-838-39","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5Iu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21978","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21978"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21996,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21978\/revisions\/21996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}