At What Price, A Halleluia?

God, indeed lavishes grace upon grace to us everyday. Our eyes are filled with His mercies, and our senses are swimming in a world where His mercies are on display. We are blessed with daily gifts and goodnesses of God showered.

Still, it seems that the devil's great attack is on the praise of God. He gives us excuses not to praise God. Some of his excuses are religious doctrines and that is the shameful part. Our mental faculties are lassoed by his minions to excuse ourselves from shouting unto God the glory that He deserves. Traditions or habit, studied or ignorant, Halleluias are in order for God, for all of His benefits and excellencies that He bestows.

What has the devil paid me to muffle my praise? That is my question. Does it outshine God's excellencies? {I am talking about heart Halleluias}

The treasure that we carry with us is far more precious than any ring or forged thing

"Oh word of God Incarnate,

O Wisdom from on High,

O Truth unchanged, unchanging,

O Light of our dark sky,

We Praise Thee for the radiance,

That from the hallowed page,

A lantern to our footsteps,

Shines on from age to age,"

Still, we are bid to let its excellencies shine in our lives and through our words. We are warned and exhorted not to take the glory to ourselves. I find this far more difficult to do when dealing in the things of the spirit, than in the obstinate pride of place in excellencies of other sorts.

I really do think that the more that your dealings are with the Word of God, the greater the temptation to exalt yourself and have the wrong ends in mind when accomplishing it. We must ignore this reality and confess and forsake much, or nothing at all would be done.

The allegory that I just watched of Lord of the Rings was vivid in that to me, when Frodo and Sam went about saying what might be said about them in their journey by those back at home in the future tales. That is so often my motivation and this lies in the face of our Savior, who was motivated by love for His own people and His Father in Heaven in coming to suffer on our behalf.

What an incomparable Savior we have, even to the heroes in mens' imaginations.

"Christian seek not yet repose,

cast your dreams of ease away,

Thou art in the midst of foes,

Watch and pray

Watch as if on that alone,

lies the issue of the day,

Pray that help may be sent down,

Watch and pray."

Lord, how can my treasure be the hidden man of the heart when it is so cold and indifferent, sometimes? Help me to do and carry the truths of Your Word and the word of our testimonies for Your glory and refuse to hold onto the glory for myself. What a great temptation that is and how often the devil gets the better in that battle. Help, O Lord. Help me to highly regard my precious Savior who was holy harmless and undefiled and not afraid to be misunderstood and maligned on my behalf. Thank you for that great salvation that He purchased and help me to greatly regard that treasure. I love you, Lord and see that eye has not seen the victory, ear has not heard the sound and neither hath it entered into the mind, the things that You have prepared for them that love You. Thank God that no allegory does salvation justice. You are the mighty God and all foes will bow at Your feet and yet You wage war against the enemy on our behalf, Your people. Halleluia, what a Savior! Amen.

Praise is not about how I feel or how it makes me feel.

Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

I remember the distinguished way the Bishop Senior used to walk around the pulpit and say "When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and what He has done for me, my very soul cries out Halleluia! Praise God for saving me!"

If that is all that God has ever done for you than that could be all that you could say. I wasn't raised to say "Halleluia!" I wasn't raised in a tradition that raises hands and says stuff about God out loud. I was raised to say the responsorial stuff, in the bold print. But, there was something about the articulation of the elder Bishop that hollered out a Halleluia that was infectious. God deserves the praise and glory...

If there are people whose very presence can make you stand to your feet and hollar a the top of your lungs for their excellence in this or that field;how much more should God make you come to your feet and yell, at least sometimes?

The younger Bishop put it into perspective for me. He said, I don't worry about people giving me the glory. People say all kinds of nice things about me and you know what I do? I get right down on my knees and tell God."You know that all of that praise doesn't belong to me, it belongs to me. I am just rolling all of that worship people do and accolades onto the one who deserves it. He accepts all of the praise and all of the worship, because I don't want to be guilty of holding onto praise that really belongs to Him.

David danced before the Lord to show that he was humble enough to know who holds all of the victory. God accepts the praise and comes near in His presence. But that is not why we worship. We worship because He deserves all of it.