Elements of praise   

Wednesday, November 18

Elements of praise   

Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make His deeds known among the peoples. 1 Chronicles 16:8

The word praise stems from the Latin word meaning ‘value’. Therefore, when we praise God, we proclaim His awesomeness and His mighty power. We know our praise is important because the word praise is listed over 300 times in the Bible. In fact, there is an entire book devoted to praise (Psalms). The whole life is to be a psalm of praise to God, the whole man and woman is to praise God: spirit, soul and body.

So what are the essential elements of praise? It’s the spirit, soul and body. Spirit, that is the part of us that brings us into the Holy of Holies, brings us into the immediate presence of God. This is where real worship happens, in our spirit.

The soul, of course, should be affected by our spirits when they are in touch with God, when they’re in fellowship with God. The soul, therefore, will express worship to God. The soul is made up of the mind, the emotion, and the will – and therefore our thoughts will be of God, and express praise to God. Our feelings and our emotions will be toward God in praise, and even our actions will glorify God.

Then finally we have the body. This is where praise is expressed. The spirit is the part of us that enters into true worship of God and that will have an effect on our mind and emotion, our will, our thoughts, our feelings and our actions – but it is expressed, praise is expressed through the body. ‘Praise and thanksgiving’ – what did Hebrews say? – ‘the fruit of our lips’.

This day praise, rejoice, be thankful and glorify your God.