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PRAISE: (Ps. 150:1). “Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty firmament!”
The word “praise”, in a general sense means an act of expressing admiration and approval of a person. But relating it to our praise of God, it also means an act of proclaiming His glory with homage and thanksgiving.
Praise is somewhat related and often goes along with the expressions of worship and thanksgiving. But it can be separated distinctly from them both. (2Chr. 29:30).
Let’s look at some facts about praise:
i. God is worthy of our praise. (Dt. 10:21; Ps. 18:3; Rev. 5:12).
ii. We are created by God for to be a praise to Him. (Isa. 43:21; Jer. 13:11).
iii. God requires and desires us to praise Him. (Rev. 19:5; Ps. 148:14; Ps. 22:3; 1Thes. 5:18).
iv. Our praise of God must be genuine and willingly from the heart. (Judg. 5:2,9).
v. Our praise of God should be always and at all places. (Ps. 34:1; Eph. 5:20;Ps. 72:15, 107:32).
vi. We are to praise God for whom He is and for His wonderous works. (Isa. 42:8-12; Dan. 2:23; Joel 2:26).
vii. We are to praise Him for His salvation, grace, faithfulness, kindness and provisions.
(Eph. 1:6, 12; Isa. 12:25).
viii. We are to praise Him alone as God. (Ps. 148:13, 66:2; Ps. 8:1).
ix. Holy angels praise God. (Ps. 148:2).
x. All creation praises God. (Ps. 19:1, 145:10, 148:7-10).
xi. We should praise God all the time including in difficult times. (1Thess. 5:18).
xii. Praises to God could be expressed variously either by words, hymns, psalms, songs, or instru-ments of music. (Isa. 42:10; Eph 5:19; 2Chr. 7:6).
Those who possess new life (divine nature) find it natural to always praise God.
Praise should be an integral part of a believers’ daily life and offerings to God.
As we praise God willingly and continually our relationship, fellowship and faith in Him will continue to be renewed, refreshed and strengthened and our whole lives will be filled with an overflowing reality of joy, peace, assurance and security in Him. There is power in praises. People of God let’s continually give ourselves to this spiritual service and continue to draw strength for our everyday power living.
CONFESSION: (1Jn. 1:9); “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
Confession means to declare one’s sins admittedly before God or man, so as to obtain forgive-ness.
But for one’s confession to be acceptable to God and to merit His mercy, it must be done out of a genuine heart of remorse and penitent heart ready for repentance. We must freely and willingly without excused or with any buck-passing (not as did Adam at Eden), admit our sin and honestly declare and abhor them before God could grant us mercy and His forgiveness. There must be genuine sorrow expressed towards our misdoing, not a hypocritical type of sorrow that only work to death. (2Cor. 7:10).
With genuine sorrowful heart we should proceed to ask God to forgive us and to cleanse us with Yeshua’s blood.
If we do not ask God for forgiveness He won’t do so. It is not enough to have Godly sorrow but we must also plead God for His mercy for him to do so.
It will be foolhardy for anyone to think that God is supposed to know our sins already and should therefore go ahead to forgive us without our asking Him to do so. The Scriptures say that it is with the mouth that confession is made unto salvation. (Rom. 10:13). If there is no need for us to ask God for forgiveness He would not have asked us so to do.
When we had asked God for forgiveness to us, we are to faithfully trust and to believe that He has forgiven us as He promised in His Holy Word. There should be no doubt in our hearts and mind about His faithfulness. (Jas. 1:6-7).
It is satan’s ploy and activity to try to keep God’s people in guilt and fear even when after they have confessed and forsaken their sins before God. We must be wise and not ignorant of satan’s devices to rob us of our joy of salvation God has given us by His grace in forgiving our sins and declaring us justified through Christ’s redemption and imputation of His righteousness to us. Always in our prayers let’s learn to maintain the attitude of true confession before God, asking for His forgiveness and cleansing so that we could boldly have access to receive His attention.
PETITION: (1Sam. 1:17); “Then Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.’ ”.
Petition can be defined as any formal request made by a person to a higher authority. It could be for ones self or on behalf of others.
Christians’ prayers, requests and petitions are directed to God the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, creator of heavens and earth, who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the Almighty.
Believers make their petitions to the Father (Abba) in the name of the Son (Yeshua) through the agency and the power of the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh). (Jn. 14:13; Eph. 2:18).
Only a Christian (genuine) is qualified to petition God. (Ps 24:3-5, 34:15; Jas. 5:16).
The only request God is ready to accept from a sinner is of forgiveness his sins unto repentance. (Ps. 34:16; Isa. 1:13-15; Prov. 28:9; Mt. 11:28; Jn. 6:37).
When a sinner has repented of his sins and is cleansed by God then he will have full right and privilege to petition God with the sure hope of His attention and answer. (Isa. 1:13-19).
Christianity is so unique among all the world religions that it is only in it believers and adherents possess the great benefit of serving a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God, whose desire is always to grant their requests and possessing the power to do so. (1Jn. 5:14-15). All other gods in other religions remain aloof, terrible, unapproachable in person, deaf and powerless to attend to their subjects. (1kin. 18:26-39).
Let’s look at some basic steps to effective petition that is accepted by God:
i. Petitions to God must be done with faith and without doubt. (Jas. 1:6-7; Mt 21:22).
ii. We must not ask with selfish or carnal motive. (Jas. 4:3).
iii. We should intercede and petition God on behalf of others also not of ourselves alone.
(1Tim. 2:1-2; Rom. 15:30; Mt. 5:44; Jas. 5:14).
iv. There should be perseverance in prayers and patience after we petitioned God. We must not be weary but to continue asking until we receive his answer. (1Thes. 5:17). At times we need to endure through prayers before we could receive our petitions from God. (1Sam. 1:12, 17, 20). Abraham waited until he received the promise of God for a child at an advanced age of 100 yrs. (Gen. 21:5).
It does not necessarily mean that our long waiting and continuous prayers will force God to eventually give us what we want that probably He had not wanted to give us. But it may be that what we are asking God for is not appropriate to us at that time but God in His divine knowledge and wisdom knows when it’s the right time for us to have such things. And also as prayers and perseverence waiting patiently on God with all faithfulness He may prove our true love towards Him.
v. Before we petition God we must be sure that we are keeping to His ways in our lives.
(1Jn. 3:22; Jn. 15:7).
God Himself has asked us to bring our requests and petitions up to Him. So it is His will and desire to grant us what we need and ask of Him, we should be confidence of this fact. (Phil. 4:6; 1Tim. 2:1,8; Mt. 7:7-11).
Thanksgiving: (Phil. 4:6); “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving , let your request be made known unto God.”
It means to give thanks to God in a show of appreciation of Him and gratitude to Him for all what He has done for us.
Thanksgiving is a duty expected of all God’s people. (2Thes. 1:3).
It is a sin and a mark of ungratefulness for anyone to be thankless.
According to the Scriptures unthankfulness is one of the sins among others to be prevalent and endemic in this last days of perilous time of mass withdrawal of people from God and His righteous ways. (2Tim. 3:2).
Thanksgiving should form part of the attitude of a Christian in his daily fellowship with God. Our thanking God shows our acknowledgment of His faithfulness, provisions and kindness towards us. If we thank Him always we would be in the position to receive more from His grace. The sin of ingratitude should not be associated with those who claim to be Christ’s.
Care should be taken by every Child of God to continually thank God always. We should thank God always both in want and plenty; in comfort and in difficulties. Our thanking God must not be based on conditions. (Eph. 5:20; 1Thes. 5:18).
In coming before God to present our needs and petitions, we are to approach Him with thanks-giving in our mouths with the confident assurance that our requests and petitions are already granted by Him. (Phil. 4:6; Ps. 95:2).
God is worthy to be praised and thanked because He is everything to us and it is He who created us. (Acts 17:28; Rev. 4:11).
If we for no other reasons but for the reasons above we must continually give God His due thanks in our lives. Even for the fact that we are alive is enough to give God thanks for, because our breath is in His hand.
Unthankfulness is one of the sins that led to the total depravity of the ancient world which prompted God to give those involved over to a reprobate mind. (Rom. 1:21). Christians must avoid this epidemic of sin and be thankful to God.
COMMITMENT: (Prov. 16:3); “Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.”
Commitment means dedication.
Unless one is committed he could not be able to please God with whatever service he intends to offer Him. Because anything anyone does halfheartedly with no conscious dedication is not genuine or sincere and cannot be accepted by God.
A believer must show commitment to the service and worship of God. We must show that we have proper understanding of whatever service we offer God.
Every service or activity performed or offered God with no sense of reverence and honor is of no use or value to Him. It is sin, error and dishonor to relate with God with heart of indifference and nonchalant attitude.
God must be served and worshiped with respect and honor deserving to Him.
Anything that may be done for Him that is not from the heart amounts to disrespect and dishonor to His person.
He expects and demands commitment from us in everything we do. And unless one is committed he would never be successful in whatever thing he engages to do.
The church today is filled with many uncommitted people who with their lips profess to love God and to be Christians, whereas in their works and deeds they are totally opposed to God’s right-eousness. (Mt. 15:8).
Commitment to church activities and religious obligations does not necessarily mean commitment to God. Zeal without knowledge is vanity and valueless. (Rom. 10:2; 2Tim. 3:5).
God’s choice demand and delight is our dedication of our lives - soul, spirit and body including our material possessions unto Him in genuinely with no conformity or compromise with sin, satan and the world. (Rom. 12:1-2).
He wants our whole being to be offered up to Him as a living sacrifice, submitted to His Holiness.
God honors and rewards commitment. (1Cor. 15:58).
Both our salvation, works and aims in life should be sincerely committed to God if we expect to progress and have a good end in life. (Ps. 37:5, 31:5; 2Tim. 1:12; Prov. 16:3).
In conclusion it is good to remark that it is only the heart that is dedicated to God in fullness can truly please Him and only the heart that please Him can be possessed by Him and be blessed by Him. New life in Christ demands commitment to God.
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