1Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!

4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!

5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150

Yesterday afternoon I sat and watched some of my employees as they worked. In an effort to keep on top of how things are running at the plant, I have multiple camera views in my line of sight most of the day. As I wait for reports to run, or speak on the phone, I often glance at the different views and sometimes catch actions that need to be addressed. Yesterday was one of those days. Plywood was being cut for a project, but it was being cut in the most awkward fashion. Each piece was being cut multiple times, when it could have been so much quicker (and with less waste) had the cuts been made in a different way. I just sat there for a moment with my mouth open. It was the most backwards thing I’ve seen in a while. I quickly rushed out to remedy the situation, and save as much waste as I possibly could.

Last night, I was reading about how we are literally commanded to worship our Lord. A command, really? I believe so. Jesus himself said so at the top of the mountain: …. it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:10b) It occurred to me that a great many of us are living our lives backward. Much like those employees yesterday who had an end goal in mind, but were approaching it in a way that, although it did get them to where they wanted to go, wasted time and material on useless actions. We want to go to heaven, we want to worship God, but we serve God like we’re children headed to school. We celebrate a weather day that allows us to stay home. We sit quietly in worship service, many times with our minds not fully focused on the activity in which we are participating. Our focus isn’t on the most important thing. It’s on worldly, temporal things, and we’re missing the big idea.

If you think about our lives, it’s obvious: Listen to people’s conversations. We talk constantly about and give praise to many things that are not really worthy of that level of praise. Sports stars, musicians, and politicians all receive time, attention, and praise from us. Check social media when a celebrity dies and the loving comments made about them from millions of people who never met them will shock you. We praise our kids constantly for the smallest achievement and never take time to show them how to outwardly worship the One true God. We clap and shout, and do all kinds of crazy antics at a sporting event, and sit mute and quiet in a church service.

When the Pharisees told Jesus to silence his followers during the triumphal entry, His response was that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40b) We are called to sing forth His praises, to tell the whole world of His greatness He should occupy our own personal Hall of Fame. We should have a mental list of His blessings at the forefront of our mind.

Are you saved? Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? We have a reason to worship!

Do you have the ability to hold the living Word of God in your hand? We have reason to worship!

I could go on and on listing the blessings in my life. But first and foremost, we are the receivers of unmerited grace in the form of our salvation, anything else is a bonus. We are all overcomers through Christ, the final victory has already been won, and we should celebrate that with every breath.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

During your worship services, focus your heart. Sing His praises! Don’t just sing the words to the song, internalize them and consider how great our God is. When you listen to a sermon, verbally acknowledge the truth of His word as it is spoken. When we affirm the message being given during a church service, we aren’t congratulating our Pastor, we’re praising God. When the truth of God’s word is being spoken, we should be participating in the service, and looking to both learn and worship His greatness every time we come into His presence.

In our daily lives, take note of your many blessings. It won’t take long to realize that God provides all we need, and many times is calling gently to us to turn our eyes to Him. With our free will, it’s our choice whether or not to put Him first, but if we do, He will pour out His blessings in a way that we can’t comprehend. Let us resolve to place our praise where it is rightly deserved, on Yahweh, the one true and living God.