We sing praises to Your name, o Lord;
(we sing) Praises to Your name, o Lord!
For Your name is great, and it is greatly to be praised!
We give glory to Your name, o Lord;
(we give) Glory to Your name, o Lord!
For Your name is great, and it is greatly to be praised!
In all we’re going through, in all we’re seeing;
In all we’ve seen, and in all we’re about to see – Our God is and will always be worthy of all praise and devotion.
We give glory to the Father, whose infinite glory and everlasting grace are clear and seen in all of creation – beyond theory and concept.
We sing praises to Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God – His finished work the ultimate demonstration and guarantee of our God’s endless love for us. Christ is as faithful as He is true.
We ascribe all honor to the Holy Spirit, the receipt of Christ’s finished work, and the reality of God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness.
Our senses and our minds are so easily distracted nowadays, that it is just necessary for us to continue to intentionally keep our focus on the Lord…
…and in the process we are reminded, of how the Lord is actually so focused on us.
And in our realizing how He cares for us, and how He is always thinking about us, we are brought, so naturally, to cast our burdens upon Him, to cast all our anxiety upon Him.
We give all to Him, and He gives us rest. He gives us peace beyond human understanding.
It’s what we do every time we worship. Every time we lift our voices and hands up – intentionally setting time to think about His love and His goodness – we are consequently giving Him our minds and our entire beings, ultimately expressing that we trust Him.
And, indeed, whoever places their trust in the Lord shall never be put to shame.
It all comes full circle, doesn’t it? And I know I’m sounding like a fanatical broken record right now, but I see myself just writing down praise and worship to our God, instead of placing faith upon the problems and the issues of this existence.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not oblivious to the cruelty of this world, and the harshness of this side of eternity.
In fact, I have come to believe that the more we see the darkness, the more we see our frailty and our corruption, the more we see the light, and the more we find ourselves running to the throne of grace.
12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.
16 The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.
17 O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Psalms 10:12-18
We run to the throne of grace, not only for ourselves, but actually even more for those within our care, within our influence. We pray for ourselves, we cry out for our needs, but I firmly believe that those of us in the body of Christ naturally would be praying for others and for their needs, oftentimes more than we pray for ourselves.
For surely as we have seen the Lord’s goodness in our own lives, so we also proclaim His goodness upon others. As He loves us, so we love others, right?
With that in mind, I believe the Holy Spirit quickens us to remember how we have been rescued and saved from affliction, so we are able to pray and minister to the currently afflicted.
We pray with compassion, apparently, even for the ‘wicked’ – for their acts are all seen by our omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Father, and we pray for their salvation, before they suffer the full comeuppance of their actions.
We pray, that they would be saved before being rendered helpless, and ultimately Fatherless. But on another note, we declare the goodness of the Lord, particularly upon the widows and the orphans, the husbandless and the fatherless. Indeed, just as we have been brought into a family, and as we’ve been able to call God our own ‘Abba, Father’ – we pray for those who have lost their husbands/wives/fathers in this life, that their eyes and senses would be opened to the overwhelming, everlasting love of our God.
I’m sorry, it’s been a while since I just went ahead and wrote whatever comes to mind. This is my equivalent of running my mouth, and I just want to give credit to the Lord, because this all used to be me cussing and really just speaking nothing – complaining, and ‘being real’; Now, I’m not saying all of that is ‘out’ of my system, but it’s really just all completely engulfed and integrated into the grace of our Lord.
I am… consumed by His grace. No matter what happens, here and in the days and years to come, to the end of time and beyond, I am embraced by the Creator of all, who through Christ I call my Father.
Thank You, Lord. Thank You for everything. Thank You for this existence, and the eternal Life You have given us, which goes beyond time and space.
Thank You, Father. Thank You, Jesus, Thank You Holy Spirit. Amen.
And now, let the weak say ‘I am strong’,
Let the poor say ‘I am rich’
because of what the Lord has done for us.
God bless you.
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