Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.
Abraham Lincoln
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16 NASB
How do we praise when it is a sacrifice to do so? How do we give thanks when all we feel is pain? These are some tough questions and the answers to them do not just come to us automatically. It is by experience that we learn how to offer up a sacrifice of praise.
Around twenty years ago I first heard a statement that helped me to rise above some of my personal problems. I dont recall exactly where I first heard it, but it was in church somewhere. It goes like this, You cant complain about your situation and praise God at the same time. What a revelation this was to me. The instant I took my mind off myself and put it on God, the less my problem appears to be. This is not to say that problems will just go away. A person still needs to work on the source of our problems whether it is personal or internal or external. Many external problems we cannot change and we must learn to accept them the way they are. It is through this acceptance that we receive peace and are able to offer up praise. When we offer up a sacrifice of praise we start living in the solution. In AA we have a story in the Big Book that relates to this. It says, When I focus in the problem, the problem increased. When I focus on the answer the answer increases. How true this has been for me, when I offer up a sacrifice of praise, I focus on the solution. God does for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
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He only ask thee to yield thyself to Him, that He may work in thee to will and to do by His own mighty power. Thy part is to yield thyself, His part is to work; and never, never will He give thee any command which is not accompanied by ample power to obey it.
Hannah Whithall Smith
Abraham Lincoln
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16 NASB
How do we praise when it is a sacrifice to do so? How do we give thanks when all we feel is pain? These are some tough questions and the answers to them do not just come to us automatically. It is by experience that we learn how to offer up a sacrifice of praise.
Around twenty years ago I first heard a statement that helped me to rise above some of my personal problems. I dont recall exactly where I first heard it, but it was in church somewhere. It goes like this, You cant complain about your situation and praise God at the same time. What a revelation this was to me. The instant I took my mind off myself and put it on God, the less my problem appears to be. This is not to say that problems will just go away. A person still needs to work on the source of our problems whether it is personal or internal or external. Many external problems we cannot change and we must learn to accept them the way they are. It is through this acceptance that we receive peace and are able to offer up praise. When we offer up a sacrifice of praise we start living in the solution. In AA we have a story in the Big Book that relates to this. It says, When I focus in the problem, the problem increased. When I focus on the answer the answer increases. How true this has been for me, when I offer up a sacrifice of praise, I focus on the solution. God does for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
********************
He only ask thee to yield thyself to Him, that He may work in thee to will and to do by His own mighty power. Thy part is to yield thyself, His part is to work; and never, never will He give thee any command which is not accompanied by ample power to obey it.
Hannah Whithall Smith
