Weekly Magazine | Praise You in the Storm
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Training Our Hearts to Praise
I love pretty much any words from John Piper, but I’ve held on to these, especially over the past season: “Occasionally weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have.”
It’s okay to be sad, it’s okay to lament, but it’s not okay to stay there forever. Lament. Grieve. Cry out. And then turn your heart back to praise. Not because you have everything you want. Not because the circumstance has changed. Not because things are necessarily going your way. But because you can trust in God’s unfailing love and because, in Jesus, He has been good to us. No matter what is happening around you, God remains worthy of your worship.
WORSHIP ON THE WAY
When you are in the book of Psalms, you will see a section of them, each with the label “A Song of Ascents.” These are the songs Israelites committed to memory and would sing as they climbed up Mount Zion on their way to worship in Jerusalem.
Doing this was their worship for the journey, their worship in the middle, their worship on the way. As they climbed the treacherous mountains, sometimes going without food and water, sleeping along roadsides and relying on the kindness of strangers, they sang. Far from home and all things familiar, without amenities or comforts, they sang. They sang praises, remembering who their God was and would continue to be, even while they were still climbing.
Sure, it feels easy to praise God when things are going well, when we are on the proverbial mountaintop. When we can see the view from above and realize that we were always safe. But the Psalms teach us that we can worship Him on the way. When things are not yet resolved, when we might not feel worshipful, when everything still feels like a bit of a mess, we can train our hearts to praise.
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