It often takes me a while to really get my head around a subject, so I often find that God will have me spend a long season of time on one particular topic, teaching me to understand it and incorporate it into my life. The topic of praise is one of those seasons. Recently, God reminded me of this time with a fresh perspective of a verse, giving me a “picture” I could use to visualize of the concept.
When I started hearing about praise again and again (a sure sign I have something to learn), my first thoughts on the subject were that I do a pretty good job of it. I try to acknowledge what God is doing in my life and thank Him for the things He has done for me. So, sure enough, almost the very next thing I read was about not confusing praise with thanksgiving, exactly what I was doing.
It seems I’m not alone in the confusion. When prompted to praise God, I often hear others immediately jump right into thanking Him for what He has done. So, I am in good company. I can understand how we get confused. In a quick search, I found 15 verses that use praise and thanks or thanksgiving in the same verse. Sometimes it seems what is being praised in one is being thanked for in another.
So what is the difference? Thanksgiving is gratitude and acknowledgement for what God has done. Praise is simply acknowledging who God is. Put another way, even if God never did another thing for me, I would still have reason to offer praise, because by His very nature, He is worthy and due all praise. I too often had used the terms praise and thanksgiving interchangeably, like running them together as one big word. I needed to break them apart.
Recently, during worship at an event, the worship leader referenced Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
This is one of those 15 verses I found. But that day, with the worship leader pausing between the first line and the second, I saw a new picture. The fact that God has made it possible for us to even enter His gates and draw near to Him in fellowship is a reason for great thanksgiving. The fact that He did this for us and the way He did this through the death of His Son Jesus, should move us to profound gratitude. Then, once we have entered in, and come into His courts, drawing closer to Him, His presence should simply overwhelm us and become the center of our focus. When we do that, we cannot help but offer praise and worship, because of the magnitude of his majesty and glory. We don’t have to look at what He has done, who He is, is enough.
To improve your praise, you have to practice praise. So, I’ll share with you an exercise that was put before me in something I read, I wish I could remember where so I could give them credit. Just to let you know, I didn’t do very well at first. For five minutes, go to God in praise and only praise. You cannot use the words thanks, thanksgiving, gratitude, or anything else that is showing thankfulness. Need more ideas or examples, check out the Psalms. The writers were experts at both. As you look at them, see if you can spot the difference between the two. And finally, just enjoy being in the presence of God. He is tickled pink you want to be with Him.
This wasn’t the end of my praise learning. One question Satan threw at me very early on to try to trip me up was “What’s the point of all this praise?” But that’s another post.
Choose Joy!
