30 Days of Praise-Day 16 Hebrews 13:15

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.

My heart hurts a little bit today. As with all of us, there are good days during a struggle or test of faith, and there are bad days. So, instead of turning to my own self-pity (which isn't much comfort anyway) or allowing myself to fall down a spiral of doubt, I am choosing to turn to the Lord and His truth.

I thought this verse was appropriate because it says that we are to "continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise." Meaning, we are not always going to FEEL like praising God, but we are to do so anyway. If our current circumstances are not conducive to naturally praising the Lord, we are sacrificing when we still continue to thank Him and recognize Him for who He is. We exercise our faith in this way, because we put our hope in the truth of God's promises rather than focusing on the temporary suffering we're enduring. He will work things out together for good for those who love Him, He does have plans for us, He does love us.

So "through Jesus" and His strength, love, and comfort, today I am uttering the deepest praise and gratitude for everything in my life-including the pain.

30 Days of Praise Day 15-Blessed Be Your Name

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

30 Days of Praise-Day 14 Psalm 51:15-17

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

I love David. He, like most of the other men and women that God chose to include in His Word, is so real and genuine. He wasn't a super Christian, or perfect or un-relateable on some pedestal. In fact, he committed adultery and then had the woman's husband murdered so he could have her. And God had to deal with his sin. This Psalm is his response to that and his confession of his wrong-doing after Nathan the prophet made him see the error of his ways through a parable. I love how he says "Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise", as if the praises of God were so overflowing in him that just by opening his lips, one would fall out. Even in the midst of his sin and brokenness, he was praising God.

A "broken spirit" is what God requires of us when assessing our own sin. We are to confess it to Him and experience a godly sorrow over it; not condemnation, as that is never the will of God. But when we're convicted, we are also broken and need to come to the Lord for healing and restoration. Which leads me to my other favorite passage in this Psalm:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (vs. 10-12)

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Chuck Smith had something interesting to say about these verses found earlier in the chapter:

So the prayer for the restoring of the joy of salvation. It is amazing the way sin can just rob you. Unconfessed sin can just rob you of God's joy in your life. There are so many Christians who are borderline Christians. They try to live as close to the world and still be a Christian as they can, and they are always just trying to find out just how close that is. Always experimenting. Just living on the edge. Flirting with the other side. And they have the dilemma of having too much of Christ to be happy in the world, but too much of the world to be happy in Christ. "Restore unto me Lord, the joy of my salvation. And uphold me with Your free Spirit."

My prayer today is first that I would be so enamored with my Lord, so accutely aware of His greatness, that praises would just flow out of my mouth (figuratively-in my actions and words to others, etc) when I open it. Second, I want the joy of my salvation restored to me. I want all the cares of the world to be absorbed by the loving caresses of my Heavenly Father and to be free of worry, doubt, shame, guilt of past and present sins. I want to experience what true joy is...despite what's happening around me.

30 Days of Praise-Day 13 Psalm 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Thank you for this day Lord! Help me to honor you in it with my thoughts, actions and speech.

30 Days of Praise-Day 12 Accolades

I praise you Lord for all you have done in my life. I give you glory and honor for who you are-the First and Last, Beginning and the End, Mighty God, Emmanuel. I thank you and praise you for the trials that I'm experiencing right now in my life, for I know that you are using them for my good. Please burn away any bonds that have a hold on me as I go through this fire and help me to draw nearer to You. My greatest plea is that I would know you more, that your will would be done, that you would fill my life with your presence and strengthen my faith so that it will never be shaken.

I thank you for all the blessings I have in my life. I thank you for my amazing husband, my job, my church, my family, friends, for food in my stomach, money in the bank, for this perfect fall day. I love you Jesus. I give you all the glory both now and forever more.

30 Days of Praise Day 11-Psalm 139:13-16

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Being a woman in our strive-to-be-perfect society can be overwhelming sometimes. The pressure to have the perfect body, clothes, hair, makeup, house, etc. comes at us from every angle in our Babylon-like culture. It's nice to have the reminder that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" no matter what size of jeans wear, how nice our hair is or if we never can quite get that last 10 lbs off. God "sees" us, his children; in fact, He loved us so much that before we even took form in the womb or took our first breath, all of our days were written in His book. If that's not a God of love, I don't know what is.

Today I'm praising God for the fact that I am a beautiful daughter of Christ, clothed in perfect robes of righteousness. He saw what he has made and it is GOOD.

30 Days of Praise-Day 10 Psalm 19:1-3

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

I wrote a poem about these verses while I was still "SLH" (Shanna Lynn Hazard). I thought it would be appropriate to share since in my life the Lord has done all of these things. To God be all the glory!

The morning skies proclaim God’s glory
The warm pinks and oranges splashed across their expanse
Remind of promises and mercies anew
Gone is the cold dark night
Replaced with the beauty of the Son
Gone are the days in murky blackness
For a new Dawn has risen
He has come to free the captives
From their painful bonds
The chains and rags that bind
His precious lambs
He has come to save the lost
Calling their names
Through the steep and dangerous
Hills of their sin and doubt
Determined to pursue until they come back to the flock
He has come to pour the fragrant oil of gladness
On dry, parched hearts,
To give new life where there was once death
To be living Water so those who drink will thirst no more
He has come to give his children new names
No longer to be defined by anything other than what He’s made
Chosen ones, beloved children, saints of God, followers of Christ
He has come to bring truth
Through the muddled confusion of our times
Slicing through the cobwebs with his brilliant Word
Letting in the light
We breathe Him in with every breath
He is in every molecule, everything that’s beautiful
He’s waiting to fill the hole that He created
In those who refuse to acknowledge Him
Those who seek and lust after empty pleasures
When the Lord of all Creation is asking them
If He can come and eat at their tables
If He can show them all He wants to give them
If He can bring the life that He so longs to give
If He can heal their pain, lift them out of their ruts
And take them into life eternal.
He’s knocking…and waiting for an answer…

SLH 12/27/05

30 Days of Praise-Day 9 Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Part of praising God is recognizing and remembering who He was, is and always will be.

Wonderful Counselor:
Another word for "wonderful" that I've read in a couple commentaries is "miraculous". So He is a God of miracles and great power. In Jesus we have a Savior who is there to comfort us, to take upon Himself all of our hurts, cares, struggles and burdens. Yet even in the midst of doing so offering us the true counsel of His word to keep us strong and moving towards healing.

Mighty God:
He is a God who's hand spans the universe, who's robe train fills the temple with glory, who defeated sin and death with "the joy" of the cross set before Him so that we could be with Him in heaven. He is able to defeat any foe, conquer any hardship and deliver us from all temptations. He is a God worthy of our worship.

Everlasting Father:
Some of us have not had fathers that are everlasting. We don't know what that means. Some may have left physically and yet some emotionally, and the end result is that our view of God the Father is skewed. We apply the characteristics of our earthly fathers to the perfect Father in heaven and we are hindered in our relationship with Him. We must apply truth to who He is and who He's proven Himself to be. He is a Father who loves His children, is never-changing, never sleeps or slumbers and in His Word promises to be with us always, even to the ends of the earth. Even better, we will have Him for eternity with no more tears or pain or humanity getting in the way of the love between a Father and a child.

Prince of Peace:
Unfortunately this world is darkened by evil and thus warfare and strife. When Christ comes back, He will establish peace on this earth. This is something that we can look forward to. On a smaller scale, when the winds and waves of my trials seem to be overtaking me, all Christ has to do is speak "Be still" and my heart is full of peace and quiet.

30 Days of Praise-Day 8 Psalm 40:3

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

The verses that preceed this one are important to keep in mind to put this into context:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Isn't it true that out of the slimiest pits come the greatest praises? Whether the mud or mire we're experiencing is a difficult trial or a consequence of sin, God is always there to make things new. He puts a new song in our mouths and even though we might have made a mess of things, what's even more incredible is that our lives can actually be used as a witness to others.

What an amazing, powerful God we serve! He is the author of all restoration and redemption, even when we're broken or covered in dirt and stuck in a rut. There is no situation too hard for him, no one too far gone for Him to save. All we have to do is cry out to Him and then wait patiently...which might be the most challenging part about these verses!

30 Days of Praise-Day 7 Daniel 2:19-23

During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king."

I am really enjoying my Beth Moore Daniel Bible Study. Any study in the Word is amazing and leads to peace, righteousness and a better relationship with God. But for some reason, Daniel has been extra rich in my life.

In this particular passage, Nebuchadnezzar has threatened to kill all the wise men of Babylon because none of them could tell him what his dream was and then interpret it for him. That is, except for Daniel. After urgent praying with his friends, God reveals not only the dream the king had but its interpretation, thus sparing multiple lives. Verses 19-23 of Daniel 2 are an outpouring of thanks to God for his wisdom, power and "illumination" of the situation (vs. 22's "And the light dwells with Him").

I love that Daniel gives all the credit to the Lord immediately. Nothing was done in his own power except urgently praying and then waiting to hear from the Lord about this mystery. If we truly believe that God is who He says He is, we can trust in the fact that He will reveal to us the deep and hidden things we ask of Him, give us wisdom and discerning and will answer our prayers one way or another. The key to all of those things is urgent and consistent prayer.

30 Days of Praise-Day 6 Psalm 42:11

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

I thought I would reference a commentary for today's verse. Chuck Smith always has great things to say in his commentaries and I have copied his words below:

It is important that you be honest with God. You are never going to deceive Him. You are never going to fool Him. And if you are upset, confess it. Be honest with God. "Oh God, my soul is disquieted within me." There are some people who say, "How is everything going?" "Oh great, just great, great, great." But in reality they are just covering, because things are going horribly and they are really upset. They are at their wits' end. They don't know what to do. And yet, they put up a good front. And we sometimes carry this over with God. But it is best to be honest with God. "God, I am so upset. My soul is disquieted. It is cast down. That's one of the things that people quite often cast at the Christian when something goes wrong. "Where was your God when that tragedy happened? Where was your God?" As though God is supposed to deliver us from every problem in our lives. God doesn't promise to deliver you from every problem. In fact, there is a promise that you don't really like that says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Psalm 34:19). I hate that promise. I don't like afflictions. And in afflictions people are always saying, "Well, where was your God then? Where is your God when children are starving to death in Cambodia? Where is your God when earthquakes happen in Algeria? Where is your God when Mount St. Helens blows its top? Where is your God?" It does get discouraging sometimes when we don't have answers.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why are thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Psa 42:11).

Hey, I am going to come through. One of these days I will be praising God even for this trial that I am presently enduring. I will yet praise Him.

30 Days of Praise-Day 5 1 Peter 1:3-7

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

This passage of Scripture gives me chills. It's such a powerful truth and the basis of our faith. Through Jesus's death on the cross we are born into a "living hope"...the hope of our eternal inheritance that we will one day receive when we get to heaven. I am reminded of another verse in II Corinthians 4:17:

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all.

When we go through hard times we can either have a pity party and wonder why God is allowing them to happen (which is a natural human reaction-no judgement intended) or we can rejoice because we know God is refining us. I think it's interesting how the Scriptures compare our faith and the refinement of our faith to gold. In the dictionary, “Refine” means several things:

*to reduce to a pure state, as with sugar, metal, or oil
*to free from moral imperfection
*to improve by pruning or polishing
*to free from what is coarse, vulgar, or uncouth, as with a refined person

Gold has to go through a fire so that all its impurities rise to the surface to be removed. Without this process, it's not "pure" and doesn't have a lot of value. However, it can be completely destroyed if the fire gets too hot (vs.7 above). So much more is true of the refining of our faith, which is "of greater worth than gold", and actually withstands the fires of our trials if we allow it to do its work. It comes out on the other side with more value than one of the most precious metals on earth-gold.

The only way to be purified is to go through the fire. One of the excerpts I read about the process of refining gold stated "The purer the gold is, the more difficult will be the process of refining." This might not sound like good news but maybe explains why trials and life gets a little more difficult the closer we get to reflecting and emulating the Lord. Even though its difficult, I wonder what would happen if we changed our perspective when hard times come upon us. If I know that God is working together all things for the good of those who love Him, submitting to the refining process in my life might be a little easier...welcomed even. I want to be like the purest gold-closer and closer to revealing Christ in my life and actions.