Exodus 15:2 - "The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him."
Let me ask a silly-serious question: "Have you ever felt 'down' before?" It's a silly question because I'd dare say that almost everybody has been. I know a very few people who might honestly say they've never, ever felt down.
There are all sorts of reasons why we might feel down. But instead of listing some of those reasons, God put it on my heart last night to remind all of us what God wants all of us to do when we do feel down.
What God wants all of us to do when we feel down is to Praise Him!
I believe that the two main reasons that so many of you respond to this devotional, saying that it encourages you, are that 1) you're reading a scripture passage that starts all these devotions and 2) you're reading a "Praise God!" that ends all these devotions.
Whenever we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, God has ordained that three things happen, all of which we can see, at least in part, in today's Bible verse from Exodus 15:2.
First, when we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are claiming in faith that God is sovereign. In other words, we are declaring to whoever will listen that God is in charge. We are telling our circumstances and our adversaries that God is in charge of our life instead of anybody or anything else. And through faith in Jesus Christ, we know with utmost certainty that the God who's in charge of our life is for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us and prevail? No one! If God is for us, no one can be against us and prevail. That doesn't mean that somebody has to lose in every situation. It means that God has the power to work things out in a way that everybody wins! When we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are claiming in faith that God is sovereign. So, "Praise God!"
Second, when we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are surrendering to God's promise to lift us up above our circumstances. So when we "Praise God," whatever situation is causing us to feel down, God lifts us up above it so we can see it more clearly and see it for what it is, namely, it's not in charge of our life, but instead it's under God's sovereign rule. When we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are surrendering to God's promise to lift us up above our circumstances. So "Praise God!"
And finally, when we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are using our God-given spiritual weapon against Satan and all Satan's cronies. Satan is a deceiver. He wants to deceive us into believing things about God that are simply not true. But he woos us into believing wrong things about God because he knows that faith believes in things that can't be seen except in faith. So Satan lies to us and whispers to us that since we can't see what we want to see, then apparently God does not exist or God is not sovereign or God is not for us. To say, "Praise God!" is to say, "Satan you're a liar, and though, at the moment, I can't see what I want to see in the material realm, I know it's all there in the spiritual realm: God is, and God's sovereign, and God's for me and for all people, and my 'down' circumstances have already been defeated. God's just waiting for the right time to show me as he strengthens my faith until he does! So get behind me, Satan!" When we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, we are using our God-given spiritual weapon against Satan and all Satan's cronies. So, "Praise God!"
As a closing note about these three things that happen when we praise God by specifically saying "Praise God!" aloud, none of them are based on how we feel. So even if we're feeling down, if we'll just trust and obey God by praising him aloud, then all three of these truths become ours, and they not only battle against our "downness" but immediately stand in God's victory over our downness so that we're all the more eager to "Praise God!"
Praise God!!!!!!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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