Praise IV - Spiritual Growth for New Believers

3. Faith Produces Praise

Psalm 106:12 says, “Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.” This is the situation of the Israelites in the wilderness. When they believed, they sang; when they believed, they praised. The essence of praise is faith. You cannot praise with empty words, nor can you casually say, “I thank the Lord! I praise the Lord!” You must have faith before you can truly praise. When you face difficulties, you pray; when you feel sorrow, you pray. But when your heart is filled with faith, you immediately begin to praise. This is the living way, not something to be spoken casually. When someone encounters a problem, they always seek the Lord. When a person has even a little faith, believes in God, believes in His greatness, His power, His love, His glory, and His desire to manifest His glory, they begin to praise. If a person has faith inside but doesn’t praise, that faith will eventually fade away. This is something we speak from experience. We dare say: if you have faith, you must praise. If you don’t praise, your faith will soon be lost. Just a little while ago you could believe, but now you can no longer find that faith. Therefore, we must learn to praise, to speak out words of praise, to open our mouths and praise. It’s not just about having the thought to praise, but about speaking those words aloud. Stand firm, in the face of difficulties, in the face of Satan, and praise God, saying, “Lord, I praise You.” Start when there’s no feeling, speak until the feeling grows, and start with a little faith until it’s filled with faith.

When God's glory fills your eyes, you can believe; when His glory fills your spirit, you can praise. You must see that God transcends everything and deserves your praise. When you praise, Satan will flee. Sometimes you need to pray; when you believe, when you have confidence, when you know the Lord hears your prayer, you must praise: “Lord, I thank You! I praise You! This matter is already over.” Don’t wait until something is done to praise. Praise when you have faith. It’s not waiting for the enemy to leave before you sing, but singing to make him leave. We must learn to praise in faith. When you praise by faith, you will see the enemy completely flee. Faith comes first, then praise, then victory.

4. Obedience Produces Praise

There are two main types of difficulties we face: one is the difficulties we encounter in our environment and circumstances, like the challenges faced by Jehoshaphat. This is overcome through praise to God. The other is the difficulties within us, when people speak hurtful words, offend us, mistreat us, give us unreasonable treatment, falsely accuse us, and we feel unable to bear it, unable to get over it. This is the issue of personal victory. One brother might say something he shouldn’t have said, a sister might treat you unfairly, and it’s so difficult to overcome. It feels like your whole body is struggling, and you are filled with complaints. You might think forgiveness is so hard, mercy is so hard, and overcoming is so hard. When you are wronged, slandered, persecuted, and unable to get over it, your prayer is not very effective. You can’t resist it or struggle with it. The more you resist, the heavier the pressure feels. You feel it’s such a difficult thing to overcome. Please remember, when you experience these personal difficulties and injustices the most intensely, it is not when you are praying, but when you are praising. You need to bow your head and say to the Lord, “Lord, I thank You. What You have done is right. I receive this from Your hand, and I thank You. I receive this from Your hand, and I praise You.” If you do this, everything will pass. Victory is not about battling against yourself and your flesh, trying to forgive or force yourself to forgive. Victory is about bowing your head and praising the Lord, saying, “Lord, I praise Your ways. What You have arranged for me is not wrong. What You have done is good.” When you praise the Lord like this, your spirit rises above your difficulties and overcomes the feelings of being hurt. Anyone who feels hurt is someone who lacks praise. If you can praise the Lord sufficiently, all your hurt feelings will turn into praise, and your spirit will rise high. You will say before the Lord, “I thank You, and I praise You. What You have done is right.” This is how you walk with the Lord, leaving everything behind.

The Christian life is a life that rises through praise. Praise transcends everything and touches the Lord. The path that the Lord Jesus walked on earth is the same path. You can also walk on this path. You don’t just look up to the heavens and sigh, enduring trials; you rise above the trials. When you praise, you rise above the trials. The more others try to press you down, the more you rise before the Lord and say, “Lord, I thank You, and I praise You!” Learn to accept, learn to know He is God, and learn to know that what He has done is right. There is nothing that can make a person sweet and mature like the sacrifice of praise.

We must learn not only to accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit but to praise the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Not only to accept the hand of the Lord, but to sing praises to the hand of the Lord. Not only to accept the Lord’s rebuke, but to willingly accept it. In this way, a righteous and glorious door will open before us.

5. Praise Before Understanding

Finally, let us read Psalm 50:23, where God says, “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me.” Here, “praise” can also be translated as “thanksgiving.” The Lord is waiting for our praise. Nothing can glorify God like praise. One day, all prayers will pass away, all work will pass away, all prophecies will cease, all labor will end. But one day, praise will increase even more than today. Praise will continue forever, never stopping. In heaven, at home, we will praise even more. Therefore, our best task today is to learn to praise God.

Today, we are looking in the mirror, with things unclear. (1 Corinthians 13:12) Many things we see a little of, but do not understand their deeper meaning. What we go through, whether it’s internal hurt or external difficulties, we feel the pain but don’t understand the meaning inside, so we don’t praise. We believe that in heaven there will be much praise because in heaven there is perfect knowledge. The more complete the knowledge, the more complete the praise. One day, when we stand before the Lord, everything will be clear. The things that bewilder us today will become clear then. We will see that every step of the Holy Spirit’s guidance had His good purpose. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we would not know where we would fall! If this step wasn’t blocked by the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t know where we’d be! Many things we don’t see today, we will see then. When we see, we will bow our heads and praise, saying, “Lord, You are right.” Every step of the Holy Spirit’s guidance is God’s work in us. If it weren’t for the time we were sick, we wouldn’t know where we’d be. If it weren’t for the failure we went through, we wouldn’t know what would have happened. Perhaps what we encountered was a difficulty, but what was avoided was an even greater one; maybe what we encountered was a disaster, but what we avoided was a greater disaster. When that day comes, we will understand why the Lord gave us these encounters. Today, every step we take is His leading. When that day comes, we will bow our heads and say, “Lord, I am foolish for not praising You back then. I am foolish for not thanking You in Your presence at that time.” When we understand then, we will be so ashamed of our past complaints. Therefore, today we must learn to say, “Lord, what You have done, even though I don’t understand, I know You do not make mistakes.” Learn to trust, learn to praise. On that day, you will be able to say, “Lord, I thank You for Your grace, saving me from unnecessary discontent and complaints. Lord, I thank You for Your grace, as there were many complaints I didn’t speak.” Many things, if you could see them now, you would praise even more. We must praise Him because the Lord is good. (Psalm 25:8, 100:5) You must keep saying, “The Lord is good.” Today, we must first learn to believe the Lord is good, and that He is always right, even though we don’t understand. If we can believe, we can praise. Our praise is His glory. Praise is the glory of God. God is the God who deserves glory. May God receive much praise from His children.