PRAISING HIM

Psalm 66:17 For I cried out to him for help, praising Him as I spoke.

The Psalmist had learned a secret it would help us all to know. When he cried out, which implies he was getting desperate, he remembered to praise God even as he cried out.

He realised that if we focus on God and His greatness, and His great mercy and love for us, that our fears will decrease in proportion to our awareness of God. 

It gives me a picture of the old fashioned set of scales where weights were put on one side to weigh it down and then balanced with the flour or whatever you were weighing. I think praise is a bit like that. The more we praise God the more the scales are weighed in our favour, and the more the fears subside and lose their grip on us because our perspective has changed.

Praise releases the armies of heaven to help us and protect us. Praise will lift our spirits because it shifts our focus from ourselves and our worries, over on to God. Praise reminds us we're not alone and we have a Deliverer whose name is Jesus, our Champion.

Next time we're in a place of crying out to God for help, and no doubt there will be a constant need for that in our lifetimes, let's remember to do it with praise in our mouths, with God's love and mercy in our mouths and Jesus' victory over the devil in our mouths knowing we're releasing supernatural forces to work on our behalf when we do. 

The wonderful thing is it's not hard to do when we remember everything we are and have has come from God in the first place and it's His goodness and kindness that supports us, goes before us and follows us all the days of our lives. Thank You Lord.