worship in all directions: upward

Our final aspect of directional worship is upward worship.  It’s what most folks think of when they hear the word worship.  In Hebrews 13:15, the upward direction involves  two specific actions: praise & thanksgiving: “Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name”.  Praise is primarily acknowledging God for who he is.  Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is giving thanks to God for what he has done for us.    In a future newsletter, we will dedicate ourselves to a better understanding of praise, but today’s focus will be on the priority of being thankful.

We can be sure nothing ever happens to us that our loving God doesn’t permit.  After all, like Moses, he protects us “in the cleft of the rock” as he covers us with his mighty hand (Exodus 33:22).  His rod of protection and direction should bring us great comfort at all times (Psalm 23:4).  But let’s be honest -- we know we should be humbly grateful.  Yet there are times when we are tempted to humbly hateful!

A story is told of a young Christian couple who went into the hospital to have a baby and, upon testing due to complications, found out their baby had Down Syndrome.  As word spread throughout the hospital, doctors & nurses listened to hear anger at God for how their circumstances had changed.  What they heard was not anger but trust & thankfulness in their Lord.  They said no matter what, they knew God would work the situation out for their good and his glory.

Apparently that new mom & dad understood that God would be with them in the midst of unexpected or difficult circumstances.  Before any of us can give thanks and praise to the Father and really mean it, we, too, must accept God’s sovereignty in our hearts.

I Thessalonians 5:18 says, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  Notice that we are not told to give thanks for our circumstances, but rather in them.  We are not expected to be thankful for problems and hardships that come our way.

However, if we clearly understand that God reigns and that he is using our circumstances to make us more like him and to bring him greater glory, then we can be thankful to him constantly, even while we’re going through the tough times.

[taken from Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship, Dwayne Moore, 20-21.]