1.30.2013

It's harder than it sounds: What I learned in January


At the beginning of this year I posted about the theme  God gave me for 2013, of singing praises to the Lord all the days of my life.  “In the good times, in the bad times, in the unspeakably terrible times I would sing praises to the Lord with my whole heart.” I meant that when I wrote it and believed I would do it. What I didn't know is that this Praise Walk was going to be harder than it sounds. 

The Sunday morning after I wrote that first post, I woke up to heart chilling news. A dear friend of mine, my lifelong best friend since junior high was very, very ill. I She was in bad, bad shape. I could very well be losing my oldest dearest friend. The words I had written not two days before came back to me, almost mocking me. 


“I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praises as long as I live.”

Seriously? Sing praises to the Lord NOW?  I can’t think, I can’t breathe, I can’t pray – how am I going to praise Him? And for what? My friend could be dying…how do I praise God though this? 

It was very hard at that moment but I started trying to understand what it meant to praise the Lord. It was a command, not a suggestion so it was something I was supposed to do. In the good times and in the bad times and in times like these, I was commanded to Praise the Lord.  Ok, so where do I start? I should start at the beginning and praise God for Who He Is. I needed to remind myself  Who I was talking about and Who I was talking to. So I began to praise Him according to what I knew about God. I praised Him because He is a great and mighty God and beside Him there is no other. I praised Him because He is the God who sits high and looks low. I praised Him because in His hands are the depths of the earth and the tops of the mountains. And then it hit me. Somewhere in between the depths of the earth and the tops of the mountains was my dear friend which meant she was in His hands as well.  Peace began to settle in my soul. My friend was in His hands and He would take care of her. I began praise God for that.

The thing I have learned this January on the beginning of this 2013 Praise Walk is that praising the Lord all the days of my life is a lot harder than it sounds. I also learned how to do it. You have to start at the beginning, with remembering Who God Is and praise Him for it. Beginning there will lead you step by step to the place of comfort which for me was remembering that God had my friend in His hands and that He would take care of her.  In the good times, in the bad times and in the frightening and heartbreaking times, we can sing praises to the Lord because praising Him reminds us of why we praise Him in the first place. He is our God and He cares for us. And besides Him there is none other.

Yes I will praise the Lord all the days of my life and even though it's harder than it sounds, I will be able to do so  if I remember to begin and end with Him.

What have you learned this January? 
Tell us about it so we can all learn something new this month

6 comments:

  1. Funny, how something so important is something we always push behind us. It is something that makes us feel better, yet we ignore it and think it's just about Chruch. Thank you for sharing this.

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  2. Hi Michelle.

    That's a good observation. We do think it's just about what we do in church. I'm finding out it means having an awareness about the character of God and my relationship to Him as one of His children every day. It really give you something to think about.

    Thanks for stopping by.

    ~ Cassandra

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  3. Good words, Cassandra. I know the time I need to lift up praise the most is when I least feel like offering it. And it's always good medicine.

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    1. Hi Laura,

      It's so true that the times we least feel like offering up praises are the times we need to the most. It's a lesson I'm learning this year.

      Have a good week and thanks for stopping by.

      ~ Cassandra

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  4. I love the way you wound yourself through this blog. Oh how lovely. I just looked to the right and saw you have my blog posted. Thank you so very much. I think one way to praise God is to talk with God. Doesn't always mean you're saying lovely things. You can be saying, "How did this mess happen? Were you watching? Did you turn away?" and then sit and listen just the way you did. I'm Jewish and come from a long tradition of talking with and arguing with and questioning God. I think ignoring God, being unwilling to sit and listen, making God responsible for everything that goes wrong in our lives and the lives of our friends, thinking we can only talk pretty with God are the opposite of praising. Most everything else is.

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    1. Hello Barbara!

      Thank you for leading the morning prayers. I love your blog.

      More than likely my prayers DO start out with "How did this mess happen?" and I'm talking about ME. LOL. Love waking up to your prayers in the morning and always stop to join in.

      God Bless and thanks for stopping by.

      ~ Cassandra

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Cassandra from Renaissance Women