One of those scenes from TV that feature a long table with a white tablecloth and lots and lots of food?
Thanksgiving?
A Family Reunion?
A Church's potluck dinner?
What about another kind of feast? What about a feast of praise?
There's a verse somewhere that infers that there is power in praising God. If you put "power in praising God" in your search engine, you'll come up with lots of sites that talk about this.
It could be considered the ultimate positive inner talk. Like the secular gurus who tell us to think and speak positive messages to ourselves, praising God does the same thing but amplified like a million times. The following quote is from Ministrymaker.com:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV). The prescription for stress and anxiety is threefold – Prayer, Praise, and Positive mindset (Philippians 4:8). We are to bring our problems to the Lord in prayer – “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NKJV). Read also Matthew 11:28-30. You might be surprised to hear me say, prayer alone is not enough. Prayer focuses on the problem whereas praise focus us on the solution. Prayer keeps our concentration on the cause of our stress and anxiety. It is important to pray but we dare not stop there. We must move from prayer to praise, so that, we do not dwell on the problem but on the solution – thanking Him for the answer.
This morning I read a passage in The Message Bible from Psalm 50. It says, "Spread for Me a banquet of Praise, serve High God a feast of kept promises."
Think about what 2013 could be if this verse was your theme verse!
You know what -- it's going to be my theme verse no matter what happens. If you decide to praise God no matter what before anything happens, you're more likely to do it. Praise also offers a protection to your heart and mind and family. I don't know if this is true or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if praise releases God's angelic hosts.
I'm going to try it.
I'm going to make it my life this coming year.
Will you?
I hope so.