576. The Missing Praise Report

“We had our fellowship group last night,” Stan began.

“Good time?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.  “Great people, mostly from our church.  Fun people to be around.”

“However,” he continued, “there was something missing last night.”

“Something or someone?” I asked.

“Yes,” Stan replied.  “Both.”

“What and who?” I responded.

“We always end our time together in prayer and praise,” Stan replied.  “Getting prayer requests is always easy.  Most everyone has something he or she wants the group to pray about.”

“However,” he continued, “with the exception of one member of the group, there’s not always so much about the praise aspect, and that particular person was not there last night.”

Continuing, he said, “This person has the God-given focus of narrowing in on praise.  It seems she rarely asks the group to pray for anything, but she is always a leader when it comes to praise.  She, like the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, helps the group to zero in on praise.  As I said, she wasn’t there last night and she and her praise report were missed.”

“You mentioned she was similar to something the letter to the Hebrews says about this,” I said.  “In what way?”

“Near the end of that letter,” Stan answered, “the writer encourages me, as one of the readers, to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.  However, sorry to say, I often don’t focus enough on the praise aspect of my relationship with God.”

Continuing, he added, “That’s what the woman from the group does, she continually praises God.  And by her doing that, it encourages others in the group to focus on what they have to praise God about.  Her absence last night really made me notice the lack of praise.”

“From now on,” Stan concluded, “with the help and leading of the Holy Spirit, I am going to seek to be a praise warrior.  We’ve got lots of prayer requests, but, I think, we are missing some praise reports!”

_____________________________________

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.  Hebrews 13:15.

Prayer:  Thank you, Father, for your provision of all I need for when I step into eternity, as well as all I need for the time remaining on this side of eternity. Thank you for the truth that you want me to praise you for everything about you.  I confess that too often I fail to praise you as you deserve and want.  I do that because I want to focus only on what I want, rather than acknowledge and praise your presence in every aspect of my being.  Please forgive me.  And please, Father, help me in following every step of your lead to continually praise you for everything.  Thank you I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Think on this:  Prayer requests flow easily because there is always an abundance of what we want God to do for us.  How about an abundance of praise?  Which is more abundant in your life?  What does it look like to focus more on giving thanks and praise, than on asking?  How can that be made to happen?  Do you want that?  Why or why not?