IT IS A GOOD THING to praise the Lord. In fact, if you recognise what God has done for you then you do not need a cheerleader in order to praise Him.
If you recognise that the breath you breathe was not put there by your mummy and daddy then you will open your mouth and thank God.
Sharing this message which lent testimony to the effect of praise and worship was New York-based preacher Derek Burley of Healing for the Soul Ministries. He detailed the story in 2 Chronicles Chapter 20 verses 15-22, which spoke of how the children of Moab, Ammon and the Ammonites, came up against King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel, and how they were defeated by the praises of God’s people.
He told his listeners, “Firstly, when this Old Testament king put praisers in front of the army it caused the army to gain a new found faith in God since singing to the Lord and praising God ignites faith and awakes the truth you know about God. Secondly, the enemy was confused, and turned on themselves. This caused a great victory for the children of Israel that day.”
Burley said that while “God has not called us to put physical singers” in front of us when we confront our enemies, the message behind this incident in the Bible, was about the importance of praise in the life of a believer.
He said believers must praise God from the rising of the sun until the going down of the sun and that this meant praising God when we awake in the morning, while we are on our way to work, during our daily appointments and on our way back home. “We should thank God is every situation; in the good times and in the bad times, which means we should praise and thank God all the time,” he added.
The Healing For The Soul associate minister said it was also necessary to thank God for His promises to and “for the work He is often doing behind the scenes”.
“God is always working and He is working right now in your situation”, Burley assured those in the congregation.“Whatever struggles you may be having in your flesh God is working. Whatever difficulties you may be going through God is working. Even in your ups and downs in life God is still working. God never ceases to work. If we have the mindset that He is always working we should thank Him all the time, even for those things which are on the horizon. We can be thankful that our situation is going to turn around.”
Burley also stressed that the message in the book of Chronicles “is fitting to what we may be going through right now in our lives” and that even when it seems like we are going backward in our circumstances, as long we do what God asks us to do, “He will come through for us”.
“God rewards us for seeking Him through faith and that the true seekers are those who seek God until they find what they are seeking Him for.”He said the enemy was coming against King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel and that Jehoshaphat chose to seek the Lord until He got a word from God and until something happened.
Burley also told his attentive audience that “the Body of Christ needs those who know their God and who will rise up and do exploits in His name”.
“Such people,” he added, “take action to move with the movement God has already moved them to.” He further said to those gathered at the Collymore Rock Church of the Nazarene that this generation must show forth the praises of Him “who has called us from darkness into light” and that with praises on our lips “we can defeat
any enemy.”
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