Unconditional Praise
“I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:1-3
“So you’re going through a lot right now,” a beloved friend told me by phone one morning. For weeks, I had been crying out to the Lord for answers, relief, help, anything at all He would give me. I had also been letting people know my needs, asking for prayer and desperately seeking assistance. All of this was to virtually no avail. My trial continued, questions remained, and there was nothing tangible I could point to as the help I was so convinced I needed.
“Yeah, I am,” I replied. I spent a good bit of our phone call sharing my struggle, but we didn’t try to figure out any answers. We knew the answers would come from the Lord in His time.
“I would like to pray for you before we get off the phone,” my friend told me. “I’m already on my knees waiting,” I said with a smile, for I knew his heart to pray and I knew my need. I snuggled down close to the ground in eager anticipation, and the word lullaby came to mind. I wanted to rest peacefully in the confines of his prayer for those precious minutes before I headed back to what I assumed would be another day of trial.
In the midst of his prayer, he prayed something rather odd and not something I had heard him pray for me before. “Please Lord give Lara a word…” I know some people use the expression, “God gave me a word,” but they usually are referring to a message, an instruction, something containing a number of words. I sensed my friend was praying for a single word God would use to breathe new life into me.
I got off the floor relieved, strengthened, excited as I would await how God would answer the prayer. Within minutes, I found myself singing – and singing – and singing to the Lord. In the midst of my trial, with no answers, no great relief, no end in sight, a word came into my heart. PRAISE. God had answered the prayer. A single word. Praise. He was reminding me that praise isn’t about our circumstances; it’s about Him. My trial wasn’t over. My circumstances hadn’t changed. But He had lifted me up out of a pit of despair and into the indescribable joy of praising His holy name no matter my circumstances. Praise the Lord – no matter your circumstances! Praise Him for who He is! Oh, praise the Lord!