Bringing in the harvest…
THE POWER OF GENUINE PRAISE
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. (Acts 16:25-26)
Almost in every church and almost everywhere in the world you hear people talking about “praise and worship” and you can see “praise and worship teams.” Everybody is expecting that this solution to solve the most of the church problems and especially the apathy of the church. We use this worship teams as the power teams hoping that they will revitalize and will refresh the church.
There is some truth in this assumption, but also there are a multitudes of factors that are influencing our spiritual life and worship. Thinking about this and meditating I’ve realized that according to God’s word, the life of the Spirit can’t co-exist with the life of the flesh and when we talk about praise and worship we can’t separate the worship from the worshipper.
It’s not my intention to write a book about this, but it is obvious in the Scriptures that God is more interested in the worshipper than in his gift. My intention is to find the answer to this question: What is the genuine praise and how can we profess it on regular bases?
First, the genuine praise is a result of a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is a big difference between singing about God and praising God. Many unchristian artists are singing a lot of beautiful Christmas songs, but they don’t believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ.
To know for sure that you praise God you have to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This relationship has to be genuine and has to be expressed in the way you live your life. A genuine Christian is not the one that says it, but the one that lives it!!!
Second, the genuine praise is a result of a genuine faith. No human being would have been able to do what Paul and Silas done in this circumstance without having a genuine and living faith. Faith means more than accepting a set of rules and doctrines, faith means to TRUST in Jesus Christ and His Word. It was not the first time for the apostles to be persecuted and for sure it was not the last time, and they were acting like they ever acted in these kind of situations: they were joyful and they were praising Jesus for the privilege to suffer with Him and for His Name. So, for Paul and Silas the persecution and suffering were a reason to thank God and praise God, and not a reason to complain before God and to fill lawsuits against the people that were treating them cruel and unfair.
Third, the genuine praise goes together with the genuine prayer. There is nothing more powerful than a group of 2 or 3 Christians gathered in and for Jesus’ Name. Jesus himself told us about the power of prayer.
Today we have the tendency to pray less and less home and less and less in the church, but if we want to experience God’s power we MUST pray. The real thing about prayer is the fact that is drawing us closer to God and is helping us to see the things through God’s perspective. A genuine prayer can’t be realized without experiencing the same purpose and the same love for God and for the people as Paul and Silas had.
Do you want your life and church to be shaken by God’s power ? Then be a GENUINE CHRISTIAN and make praise a genuine part of your life.
John Urs
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