Praise

In our human relationships we use praise as a way to modify the behaviour of those around us, children learn which behaviours elicit the praise of their parents and so repeat those behaviours, we praise our partners when they do what we want, we even praise our pets in order to train them into positive behaviour. We work harder and more willingly for an employer who is generous with praise, being praised gives us a warm feeling.

So when we praise God it is all too easy for us to slip into the mindset of behaviour modification; if I praise God, he will answer my requests, if only God would do what I ask then I could praise him. Our worship becomes transactional and we miss the point.

God does not need us to tell him he has done a good job, he is not anxiously waiting for our stamp of approval. We can not modify God’s behaviour by praising him, he won’t do a better job if only we would encourage him. So why do we praise?

We praise God because it modifies our behaviour, we take the focus away from us and our needs and wants and simply celebrate God for who he is and we are freed from the demands of the flesh, praise brings us in line with heaven, where the angels  constantly worship, and releases us from the noise and chaos of the world. When we enter God’s presence in praise we allow him to speak to us, to reclothe us in our rightful mind and remind us of our place in his plan rather than trying to fit him into our plans. When we stop trying to control God we can truly worship in spirit and in truth, in the words of an old hymn we can “let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace”.