Day 24: Psalms of Praise & Thanksgiving

“Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, Who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined…We went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment. I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.” (Psalm 66:8-10, 12b NKJV)

Have you ever gone through a heart-wrenching event that caused you to cry out to God every waking moment? Such a season can be hard and painful, but also a time when we draw near to God and He draws near to us.

But what about when our situation turns around for the good, and God gives us our heart’s desire? Is our praise as long-lived and energetic as our fervent requests?

When my husband was diagnosed with cancer, our hearts were crying out to God constantly. And we found ourselves surrounded by more friends than we even knew we had, all praying for grace, wisdom, and healing.

Three weeks later the doctor declared my husband cancer free and gave him a clean bill of health. A miracle! But, although we were overwhelmed with gratefulness, we found ourselves ready to move forward. Moving forward is good, but it is so easy to also move right on past the gratefulness as well.

Let’s not do that. Let us make His praise be heard, over and over again. God is constantly with us, through the good and bad, and there is never a moment that our hearts should not be full of praise and thankfulness to Him. After all, He is the one Who keeps our soul among the living and holds our feet in place on solid ground.

Take some time today to be still before God. Ask Him to fill you with a heart of praise and gratefulness, regardless of your outward circumstances. And then praise Him out loud! And then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next day. We can never praise Him too much.

God is worthy of our praise, always.

Stefani