The Power in Praise
Sr Pamela SJC
Are you surrounded
by difficulties right now and broken- hearted ? Is your spirit heavily
burdened and unable to praise God ? Perhaps it is because you have not
fully accepted and understood the good news Jesus came to bring. Praise
is an active response to what we know that God has done and is doing for
us in our lives and in the world through his Son Jesus Christ and the Person
of the Holy Spirit.
There is a tremendous power
in praising God for everything in our lives instead of pleading with him
to change the circumstances that hurt us. The very fact that we praise
him means that we accept the fact that he is responsible for what is happening.
Praise is based on a total and joyful acceptance of the present as part
of his loving, perfect will for us. We praise him not for what we expect
will happen in or around us, but we praise him for what he is and where
and how we are right now.
When we honestly praise
God, something does happen as a result. His power certainly flows into
the situation.Then we notice sooner or later a change in us or around us.
The change may be that we come to experience a real joy in the midst of
what once appeared to be a miserable situation or the situation may change.
God works in every detail
of our life for good. He has a perfect plan for our lives. But he cannot
move us to the next step of his plan until we joyfully accept our present
situation as part of that plan. He opens the door to complete his perfect
plan only when we turn to him in acceptance of the present condition of
our life. To praise him for a sickness or disaster means literally that
we accept and approve of its happening as part of this plan for us. We
can never understand why he sends difficulties into our lives. Let us try
to accept with our understanding that he does love us and has allowed the
difficulties because he knows they are good for us. He chose this most
loving way to show us that we need to depend on him. The trials and difficulties
do not come to us by accident or by some cruel fate. But all these remind
us that God is our loving Father who knows what is best for us.
Therefore let each challenge,
each trial or opportunity for growth make us better equipped to be channels
for his love and power. Let us learn to trust that all the circumstances
of our life are controlled by his loving hand and we can look at every
new trial and say, " I know that God allowed it, so it must be for my good".