Articles
Praise God!
Praise God!
As I’ve returned to Florida College, I’ve heard some version of the phrase, “Praise God,” said in many prayers. I’m not quite sure people fully understand what they mean when they say, “Praise God.” Praising God goes much further than merely saying, “Praise God”, and I fear that we say “Praise God” more than we actually praise God. Through this article, I hope to encourage us all to be able to praise God, not just in words alone, but in Spirit and in truth and in deed.
Fruit of the Spirit
When we think of the ways we praise God, we probably would think of praising God through our songs and words. Heart-felt worship is great, but this cannot be the extent of our praise. Our praise to God is first and foremost our actions: We praise God when His Spirit bears fruit in us, and we continue to be sanctified and grow in Christ. Our growth as children of God, into the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), is the greatest praise and glory we can give to our Creator. In fact, if our praise to God does not extend this far, then we have not praised God but have instead mocked Him (James 1:22).
Our songs and words of praise, the fruit of our lips is predicated upon the foundation of our obedience to Christ as Lord. In fact, praising God through the fruit of lips without the fruit of the Spirit is worse than not praising God at all! Looking through the prophets, a major theme we find is a harsh condemnation on the priests and people worshipping God in pretense, through “lip service,” and not with a true heart. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day likewise praised God with their lips, yet their actions revealed where they truly stored their heart.
“Praise God” is not a light statement to make. It’s an easy thing to say “Praise God”; it’s a much harder thing to actually praise God. The third commandment given in the law is to not take God’s name in vain. When we praise God with our lips, and not our actions, we are taking God’s name in vain. When we live in the flesh, despite being born of the Spirit, we are taking God’s name in vain. When we take the name of Christian, yet fail to live like Christ, we are taking God’s name in vain.
My point is this: “Praise God” is not some casual phrase to be thrown around in prayers and lessons to sound more spiritual. “Praise God” is a principle to be lived. “Praise God” is a call to action, to die to self and live to God, and should be used with only the greatest reverence and awe for the task at hand.
When Nebuchadnezzar built his 90ft statue of gold, he gave the command: “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image” (Daniel 3:4). It was quite easy to praise Nebuchadnezzar: fall down when the music starts. Our praise to God isn’t as easy as that. To rise up when the music starts at church is wholly insufficient for our praise to God. To praise God means much more than merely bowing our bodies before Him, but our hearts as well. To bow our trust, our faith, our love, our actions, our whole being in submission to God as Sovereign Lord is the only way to sufficiently praise the true God. We cannot say we have “Praised God” until we do just that. So then, let us worship God in Spirit and in truth and in deed, for this is true praise to God.
--Michael Xiang
