Push Over Pity Party, Let's Put Our Praises to Work
This morning I ran past a bunch of massive weeds and overgrown bushes that has taken over the side walk. It has been getting worse for months. No one ever does anything about it, all of us walking along the path just go around the massive weeds or get wacked in the face. Every time I went past I grumbled “ugh, stupid weeds, now my shoes are going to get soaked in the muddy grass again…”
Well, today I decided that even without the proper tools, I was taking those weeds out. It actually barely took 10 minutes. Pulling up the weeds and clearing the path, I remembered the words that Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians.
He said that whatever we do, whether eating, working, pulling up weeds (Paul did not write the last one, but he said everything!) we can do it all for God’s glory (Colossians 3:23) . Psalm 103:1 says, “Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name.” It sounds so good, doesn’t it? And sometimes it is easy to give all we have to God.
But aren’t there many more times when we feel frustrated, sad or angry and it feels like a challenge to praise God, let alone strive to work at everything with Him? This hits me especially hard after I’ve done something wrong for the hundredth time. It was a little challenging as I started getting smacked in the face with weeds this morning, feeling annoyed. Maybe we even start to wonder if He even wants us to praise Him with our whole selves, since we are clearly so full of messed up motives, habits, and emotions. But the funny thing about praising and working with God with our whole hearts means just that.
Remember this, Christ did not die on the cross for our sins so we could pretend to be sinless before Him. He understands we are works in progress. He loves us in the process!
It is out of that revelation that we can bring ourselves before God, even when we are stuck in traffic after a challenging day at work. Even small things like clearing weeds can become a time of worship. Even then, we can still praise Him. Praising with our whole hearts means just that- no matter what our circumstances. God is praiseworthy because He gave His son to cast out fear, doubt and sin from our lives and that truth can reverberate with praise into every area of our lives.
This is a simple question I’m thinking about this week and invite you to join me: Take a moment each day to think about our physical hearts pumping blood throughout our bodies. Without it beating, we would not be alive. This may seem like a small thing to be thankful for, but have we taken time to praise His creativity and love for even things such as our heart pumping?