Putting God's Word into practice - that's what we want to do. When David was facing Goliath, he first went to the river bed, picked up five smooth stones and put them in his bag. Why FIVE smooth stones? Goliath had four brothers. In your life, God has give you five smooth stones. They are in your bag and they will subdue Goliath and all his brothers.
The first of the five smooth stones is PRAISE. God instructs us to praise Him not because He has a big ego and needs to hear how great He is. No! He tells us to praise Him because WE need to hear how great HE is. Plus our enemy needs to be told what we know about God and His power. Praise is us saying what God is and what He has done. Praise is not warm fuzzies and emotional dribble about how we "feel" about God. There is a place for that emotional display, but praise is something very different.
Praise is you telling you Who God is and What God has done. When you praise God, your inner ear hears the Truth which will subdue what your eyes are seeing (i.e. the circumstance). This is putting into practice "walking by faith and not by sight". Praise is re-MINDING you of the power of God over those circumstances you are looking at and over the emotions you are feeling. Because Jesus Christ stripped the devil of all his powers, deceit is the enemy's ONLY option. Using deceit, the enemy plants thoughts and pushes emotional buttons to try and get you to be your own worst enemy and act contrary to God and to your best interest. DON'T TAKE THE BAIT! It's not you - it's your enemy. Recognize the difference. Then, use praise to send the enemy packing! Praising God is your trump card - it beats the enemy every time.
How does the smooth stone get from you to the giant's head to bring him down? The slingshot that give velocity and direction to that smooth stone is your very own mouth. God provides everything you need - you just need to open up your mouth and SAY IT!
Next blog will reveal smooth stone #2!
No comments:
Post a Comment