sacrifice of praise

The Sacrifice of Praise
7-10-08

This morning I awoke after just having a dream. In this dream the Lord showed me a man who had a very mechanical way of worship. He was clean during his worship time. When he stopped all his dirt came back on him. Two scriptures then came to me as I prayed over this dream: Heb 13:15 -> continually offer a sacrifice of praise; and 1 Pet 2:5 -> offer up spiritual sacrifices. It became plain to me then that the Lord is seeking those who worship Him as a life-style, not going through a worship service mechanically. Also, all the dirt we seem to be free of during worship would actually be gone if we offered up spiritual sacrifices; sacrifices of praise.
In looking at 1 Peter 2-12 I found instructions for holiness. First, we are acceptable through Christ (not of our own works). Then we are admonished to abstain from the sinful desires that war against our soul. This is our effort, exerted through our own choices of what thoughts to entertain, and which desires to approve of. This battle is spoken about in 2 Cor 10:3-5 where we are told to pull down the strong hold, capturing every thought we have and making them submit to the word of God.
Next, we see (in 1 Peter) that we are to live good lives, and do good deeds. The nature of Christ works its way inward, and as we do our part to submit our heart and our mind to the word of God, goodness works its way outward from us. This is the result of offering the sacrifice of praise.
The Lord led me into the book of Revelation for an example of how to have a life-style of praise towards Him. There are many praises recorded which affirm God’s good and just nature. These are what should come out of our mouths and live in our hearts and minds when circumstances seem to point to an evil or unjust intent on God’s part. We must remember that we also have an enemy which wants to portray God as being evil and unjust, forgetful and dishonest. Satan’s weapons are accusations. Our weapons are mightier; they are the sacrifice of praise.
As we learn to trust God in the circumstances of our lives our heart will become protected with the breast plate of righteousness. This is His righteousness, which we affirm through our praises, working its way into our hearts and converting us away from evil desires. Our righteousness then becomes manifested in a good life, full of good deeds.
The next time we worship God in a Sunday morning service and bask in the glow of His Spirit let us remember that this is a life-style. Amen.