Worthy Of Our Praise

“Praise is what I do…When I want to be close to You…I lift my hands in praise…Praise is who I am…I will praise You while I can…I’ll bless You at all times…I vow to praise You…Through the good and the bad…I’ll praise You…Whether happy or sad…I’ll praise You…In all that I go through…Because praise is what I do…Cause I owe it all to You…” lyrics from “Praise is What I Do” by William Murphy

I have had a really tough week…

You know… one of those weeks where it feels like everything that CAN go wrong…DOES!

I started a new job this week, and through the required online training videos, I can’t begin to count how many ridiculous computer issues I’ve had.

I was sick Tuesday and had to miss my second day of work because I couldn’t even get out of bed(I know…I know…not a good look when you’re a new employee). And apparently my manager did not get my voicemail that I left her, thus making the entire “not a good look” thing worse (don’t worry though, we got that sorted out and by the grace of God, I’m still employed #praiseHim).

And then this morning while scrambling to get to work (slightly behind schedule)… I spilled some of my breakfast smoothie in my car.

Not to mention that I honestly am not feeling 100% better, but have sucked it up and have pushed myself because… well ya know…. I JUST started this job on Monday!

Now I’m sure worse things in life could have happened to me. I have experienced circumstances that were WAY more heart wrenching than the things mentioned. But when the blender cup tipped over just before I was going to pull out of the driveway, I honestly wanted to cry because it just felt like there was way too much foolishness happening before 9 am.

For a second I actually felt kind of helpless…

And at that moment there were so many things that I could have done. I mean honestly, I can think of times when that series of events would have completely ruined my morning and put me in a funk that would have also ruined the rest of my day.

But for whatever reason(more than likely I was reminded of Kappes’ worship challenge a couple of Sundays ago), I decided to turn on one of my praise and worship stations, pulled out of the driveway after a halfhearted effort to clean up the smoothie mess, and sang my heart out to whatever songs played on the drive to work.

You could say that “nothing went right” this morning (at least that was my first thought), but God was/is worthy of my praise.

And I wasn’t 100% healed from my sickness, but God was/is worthy of my praise.

And I knew I would be a few minutes late for work and was really bummed out about it, but God was/is worthy of my praise.

I think I just went through the motions during the first song played, still frustrated by the way my morning began. But something shifted as I continued to worship God and give Him praise anyways. And by the time I pulled into my job’s parking lot, I had completely forgotten everything that had happened before I pulled out of my driveway 20 minutes earlier.

Today was literally the best workday I’ve had this week, even if there were still tons of computer issues to persevere through. But, I’m 100% convinced it’s because I offered God a “sacrifice” of praise when my circumstances should have told me otherwise.

Praise. Is. Powerful.

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” (Hebrews 13:15)

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)