Sacrifice of Praise

Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” By praising God in the midst of your personal adversity, or even calamity, you demonstrate to every observer that God would get your vote if He had to run for reelection every year, or month, or day, or minute. It’s a snap to praise the Lord when you get an unexpected Christmas bonus; that’s not a “sacrifice of praise.” What’s tough is to believe that God always acts for your best good (defined as agape love) when He doesn’t come through in the clutch as you would have Him do. It’s hard to praise and honor and trust Him, perhaps even through tears or gritted teeth, when you feel like life has been dealing from the bottom of the deck. But offering up praise during such times as these demonstrates a “sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15).

Folks, I’m certainly not teaching the falsehood that I should smile and say a cheery, “Praise the Lord!” at Anabel’s funeral. It would, however, be appropriate for me to tell God through my tears that it’s OK—that this is not going to be an impediment to our relationship. And you know what? He will actually see to it that I become more conformed to the image of Christ for having experienced this heartbreak as I offer up “sacrifices of praise.”

- Bill Gillham