Day 15: Psalms of Praise & Thanksgiving

“I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.” (Psalm 138:1, NKVJ)

Imagine if the Psalmist had said, “I will praise you with half my heart.” And yet – sometimes we do.  Flying through Scriptures in the morning, dashing off prayers thinking, “Oh yeah – ‘ACTS!’” (The acronym for Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, Supplication.) We think along these lines,  “A is for Adoration; I’d better insert praise in this prayer.”

“God, I praise you for your goodness, kindess, and mercy.  You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Also, please help my kid not to flunk his Algebra exam today and keep my daughter safe during her driver’s test, Amen.”

Right?!

Praising with a whole heart means willingly shoving scattered thoughts not just in the corner, but out the door.  

Think of it this way:  pretend your heart is a room.  Jesus knocks and you say, “Come in!”  But first, you shove excess junk under the bed.  He enters, and you welcome Him. But He notices the junk you nervously nudge with your foot, calf resting against mattress.

He’s standing right in front of you, yet you fidget and turn around to peek underneath the bed.

“I will praise you with my whole heart.”

As moms, we are the Master Multitaskers.

But even we can find time during the day (or even on our beds while shuffling through more thoughts) to praise Him with our whole heart.

Speaking of multitasking - God dwells in the praises of His people.  Here’s the thing - we can remain in an attitude of praise all day long!

But first, focus.  Find time to trade whatever task is in front of you for whole-hearted praise.  Start there. Practiced, focused praise births an attitude of praise.

In crisis mode, during dinner prep, and even the dreaded bed time routine (with fifteen requests for water).

​When we focus now on praising with a whole heart, we take one more step towards a lifetime of praise.  Try it!

"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment...fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him." C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
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Ruthie