“Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!” Psalm 156……………….
I had just finished praying for a short while on my knees regarding my day’s writing for the Lord when before I came up from off my knees I raised high my arms in the air in utter surrender, indicating to the Lord that my life is His, that the writing is His, that this little ministry is His, that my heart is, that I want nothing more in the world to do than live to love and glorify Him forever and help others to find and forever follow Him, hallelujah! All of a sudden I looked directly in front of me, not more than a foot or so away from me, and there was 13-year-old beagle dog Dancer whose paws were raised high in the air like my arms were as he danced away thinking nothing in the least about it. It was simply what he had felt led to do – and did. Without reservation, without abandon, without hesitation, he waved high his front legs and paws – and danced. It wasn’t just hilarious as he essentially imitated in his own little adorable way what I was doing as I raised my arms to the Lord in heaven, and as he waved his little legs and paws, but it was inspiring. Here’s why.
Decades ago, a woman who was trying to help me break free from a life-threatening bout with anorexia, who herself was dealing with the very same thing but was somewhat farther along on the road to freedom than I was, took me to her church in New York City. We stood during worship somewhere in the midst of the thick of what to me seemed like a mass number of people. Of crazy people, to be precise. For I was horrified to find that as the worship music played on, these crazy people had their arms and hands waved high in the air toward the heavens. Why would they do such a foolish thing? Weren’t they embarrassed? Didn’t they have anything better to do? Normal people just simply didn’t do stuff like that, particularly in front of other people. Oh my, I was so incredibly uncomfortable. Needless to say, that was my first and last visit to that church. And it would take years before I had become a truly dedicated and devoted follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And before I truly understood.
The Lord created us to be loved by Him, and to love Him, and to be with Him forever! Though our sin separates us from Him and makes that impossible, He sent Christ to the cross to die for us and be raised from the dead so all who truly believe in Him as Lord and in what He did on the cross and genuinely devote their lives to Him are promised everlasting life with Him! Besides His literally endless blessings day by day, which in and of themselves make praising Him forever totally called for, simply and solely the fact Jesus died for us and was raised from the dead to save us from God’s wrath at us from our sins and the punishment of forever in hell and the lake of fire IS SUFFICIENT FOR US TO PRAISE AND WORSHIP HIM FOREVER – WITHOUT hesitation, resistance, fear of what others think, anything at all.
Isn’t it something how a 13-year-old dancing beagle dog has an easier time waving his paws in the air in a sweet little joyful dance than some of us have raising OUR HEARTS and OUR HANDS and OUR LIVES to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY in unleashed, unabandoned, unrestrained, un-held back PRAISE, LOVE, and ADORATION.
On this day, tomorrow, and forever, let us all PRAISE THE LORD – even when not with our arms lifted up then with our every breath and how we live – FOR HIM! Glory be to the Lord forevermore!