{"id":22790,"date":"2014-11-13T00:20:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T05:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=22790"},"modified":"2014-11-12T22:32:39","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T03:32:39","slug":"power-public-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/11\/13\/power-public-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Public Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22736\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic.jpg\" alt=\"seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic\" width=\"560\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic.jpg 560w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Hallelujah! I will praise the Lord with all my heart<br \/>\nin the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.<br \/>\nThe Lord\u2019s works are great, studied by all who delight in them.<br \/>\nAll that He does is splendid and majestic;<br \/>\nHis righteousness endures forever.<br \/>\nHe has caused His wonderful works to be remembered.<br \/>\nThe Lord is gracious and compassionate.<br \/>\nPsalms 111:1-4<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This is the time of year we begin to focus on all we are thankful for. \u00a0We offer our praises and thanks to God.\u00a0\u00a0Why? \u00a0Because it brings us great pleasure and comfort to remember all He has done for us. \u00a0Our praises delight us but most of all, it delights God and brings Him glory and honor.<\/p>\n<p>But as I reread the first verse (in the above passage) I wondered why it is so important to praise Him<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> publicly<\/span>. \u00a0Being a bit of an introvert, the words &#8216;<em>assembly&#8217;<\/em>\u00a0and &#8216;<em>congregation&#8217;<\/em>\u00a0are disconcerting to me.<\/p>\n<p>Hebrews 2:12 (AMP) states we are to \u201c&#8230;declare Your [the Father\u2019s] name to My brethren; in the midst of the [worshiping] congregation I will sing hymns of praise to You.\u201d \u00a0And 1 Peter 2:9b (NLT) shows us our praise \u201c&#8230;can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.\u201d \u00a0Praise reveals God\u2019s wonderful works, His mercy and grace, to others. \u00a0Our praise reveals His works in our life. \u00a0Those works give others insight into the very character of God.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God\u2019s works are <strong><span style=\"color: #c45410;\">magnificent <\/span><\/strong>\u2013 <em>just like Him<\/em><\/li>\n<li>God\u2019s works are <strong><span style=\"color: #c45410;\">awe-inspiring<\/span> <\/strong>\u2013 <em>just like Him<\/em><\/li>\n<li>God\u2019s works are <span style=\"color: #c45410;\"><strong>glorious &amp; honorable<\/strong> <\/span>\u2013 <em>JUST LIKE HIM<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ok, you get the picture. \u00a0Just look at the list of characteristics given in this passage \u2013 <em>great, splendid, righteous, wonderful, gracious, compassionate, glorious, majestic<\/em>. \u00a0Those describe God. \u00a0Think about it this way: \u00a0Where would we be if David and the other authors of the Bible had not shared their praise with us? \u00a0Our knowledge of God would be severely limited. \u00a0What if friends or family that had seen God work in their lives\u2014deliver them from trouble and despair\u2014hadn\u2019t shared their praise with us? \u00a0Our knowledge of His faithfulness would not be as deep. \u00a0If we do not share our <span style=\"color: #c4540a;\">praise publicly<\/span>, we risk limiting someone else\u2019s knowledge of God.<\/p>\n<p>1 Corinthians 14:16 asks the following question:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Otherwise, if you bless and render thanks with [your] spirit<br \/>\n[thoroughly aroused by the Holy Spirit],<br \/>\nhow can anyone in the position of an outsider<br \/>\nor he who is not gifted with [interpreting of unknown] tongues,<br \/>\nsay the Amen to your thanksgiving,<br \/>\nsince he does not know what you are saying?<\/p>\n<p>This made me ask myself, \u2018If I am thanking and praising God in private how will anyone else understand much less remember the wonderful works He has done in my life?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>2 Corinthians 9:13 (HCSB) sums it up this way:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">They will glorify God for your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ,<br \/>\nand for your generosity in sharing with them and with others<br \/>\nthrough the proof provided by this service.<\/p>\n<p>Others will glorify God when we share our praise with them. \u00a0Our <span style=\"color: #c45410;\">public praise<\/span> helps others see and understand the wonderful works of our faithful God. \u00a0That is why our <span style=\"color: #c45410;\">public praise<\/span> is important; because that\u2019s really what it is all about, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #c45410;\"> * \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u271e \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Father God, thank You for the wonderful works in my life. \u00a0Thank You for the times I have seen Your hand at work in my circumstances. \u00a0Please help me to be willing to share my praise with others so the can catch a glimpse of Your glory. \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name I ask this \u2013 Amen, it is so!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hallelujah! I will praise the Lord with all my heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The Lord\u2019s works are great, studied by all who delight in them. All that He does is splendid and majestic; His righteousness endures forever. He has caused His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":22736,"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":[5889,3367,1287,425,1999,7755,7756,3174,1058,7754],"class_list":["post-22790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-gratitude","tag-praising-god-to-others","tag-public-praise","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-thankfulness","tag-the-power-of-public-praise","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5VA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790","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\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22797,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790\/revisions\/22797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}