Gratitude brings praise
November is a month where our focus is on being “Thankful” (or at least that is what we post on Facebook and Instagram during November), and so I’ve been doing some thinking about thankfulness, and gratitude. I wouldn’t consider myself a “bible student” or even someone who prays “well” (I do a lot of talking, but I don’t always listen). However, what I am learning is how to recognize when God is teaching me something. I have this “rule” that when something comes into my awareness three times in a fairly short span of time, I need to stop and pay attention and determine whether God has something for me to learn. (I actually believe that God doesn’t need three times to show me something….but He is a gracious and loving and patient God, so He keeps sending me the lessons until I pick up on them, and it usually takes three related but seemingly “random” things to get my attention.)
So, this month, as I’ve been thinking about the people that I’m grateful for and why, I’ve come across this new way to think about gratitude. I’ve come to the conclusion that gratitude is a pre-requisite for praise. And I’ve further concluded that an attitude of stewardship is a pre-requisite for gratitude. And when we put together the special sauce of gratitude that is underpinned with the recognition of the magnitude of the gift of grace and the commitment to steward that gift to the very best of my ability, we create a praise that is unparalleled in it’s power.
I came to these new thoughts from an unusual combination of things, that seem to be random but it turns out are so connected. (I LOVE that about God…..He takes the seemingly random and reveals the connectedness of it all). I was watching a DVD of Ann Voskamp talking about the “attitude of gratitude” related to her study on one thousand gifts (I highly recommend this series, and her writings on the power that comes when we begin to see the things around us as “gifts”). Anyway, she referenced a story from the Old Testament that I was vaguely familiar with….2 Chronicles 20. This is one of what I call the “battle stories” of the Old Testament….where the people of God were fighting a battle against an overwhelming opponent, and they were outnumbered and outgunned and overwhelmed and afraid. In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat was in such a position, facing a “vandal horde”. I don’t know about you, I’ve never actually faced a vandal horde, but I’ve been in situations that felt overwhelming and where I felt ill-prepared or not fully resourced to face the challenge I perceived. Jehoshaphat got some good advice…to let God fight the battle for him. So Jehoshaphat and his people prayed, stood to their feet to praise God, and then Jehoshaphat made an odd strategic move….he appointed a CHOIR…dressed them in holy robes and sent them ahead of the troops, singing. (As a side note, this part of the story makes me giggle, because I have a very funny picture in my head of the choir meeting that morning….”here are your robes, you will be going out before the army to meet the vandal horde, sing well….here we go” and choir members who wonder if this was in the choir agreement and they missed the “go before the army” requirement on sign up Sunday….but, I digress).
The important thing was what the choir was singing…They were singing “Give thanks to God, His love never quits.” I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that’s the battle song I would first think of. As it turns out, it is the perfect song, because it puts them (and us, too) in the perfect frame of mind for facing the enemy. The story continues that as soon as the choir started shouting and praising, God began dealing with the enemies, and the battle was won, without any harm to those who were praising.
So, after I watched the DVD with Ann Voskamp telling of this story, I saw 2 other references to this story, within about 36 hours. One of those references is a song that is currently on my favorites list….”I raise a hallelujah”. The praise team I sing with has been singing that song for several months now, and we always comment about the power of our praise in the face of our “enemies”…..whatever they look like. (I confessed earlier that I’m not a bible scholar, so I wasn’t aware of the 2 Chron 20 reference from that song…)
And I started thinking….what does it take to raise a hallelujah, or to join the choir thanking God in the face of a vandal horde? And it occurred to me that the kind of praise that sustains us through encounters with the hard, heavy stuff is the kind of praise born from someone who is living as a steward of Grace…someone who knows how much he/she has to be grateful for.
And then today….i received a beautiful treasure in the mail with a reminder that I am to be a steward of Grace. If I’m honest, there are days when I am not a good steward at all….when I want the Grace for me, but I sure don’t want to give it to the one who has hurt me. There are days when I want others to EARN their Grace, even when I know that there is NO WAY I could earn mine. Thankfully, there are days when I stop and remember all I’ve been given, both blessings and Grace, and I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to pass it on….to be one in a harsh world that offers a word of Grace to someone gasping for it. And, in doing so, to begin to see God fight the battles that only He can win.
So this combination of gratitude and stewardship brings me to a place of PRAISE. Recognizing that I am part of kingdom work that allows me the OPPORTUNITY to DEMONSTRATE what Grace looks like….to DEMONSTRATE what it means to let God fight my battles, to DEMONSTRATE what it means to be truly grateful for all that He has done for me. And, in all of it, to sing….Give Thanks to God, His love never quits.
In a messy world, gratitude brings praise, which is wonderful.