Don't Withhold Your Praise

Many times it is easy to make worship about ourselves.

There are times when things come up that we don’t agree with. There are things that make us angry at God or make us angry at others. These things often times can steal our joy and hinder our worship. To us we may not “feel” like worshipping God and in our head it seems perfectly justified. We think, “God wouldn’t want my worship anyway, my heart isn’t in it” or we think, “God doesn’t need my worship, He is big God he has plenty of other people and all of creation to worship him.” We seem to think that God wouldn’t really miss out if we chose to be quiet just this one time. In this time we allow our anger and our stubbornness to dwell, pushing us further and further from God.

I think we forget how intimate God is with us. I think we often forget that He lives inside us and when we allow things not of him to dwell in us he is directly impacted. He is pushed aside and feels the direct impact and the pain. The child he loves and desires to communicate with gives him the silent treatment. Don’t get me wrong God is not weak physically, emotionally or in any other way. Which is why I think he can handle the billions of people around the world that cause him so much heartbreak and so much joy at the same time.

God desires our worship and is worthy of our worship. There is never a good excuse to keep our worship from him. He has never wronged us. He has never mistreated us. He has never hated us. He has only loved us constantly offering us second chance after second chance after second chance and the least we can do is offer him our worship and our praise no matter how imperfect our worship is. We will always come before him with imperfect praise, but the fact is he loves it when we praise him, when we strive to please him and put our minds on him.

Keep worshipping God no matter how you feel. Keep worshipping God no matter who has wronged you. Keep worshipping God no matter your differences. Keep worshipping God no matter your regrets. He has commanded it, and he desires it!