“PRAISE”

After hearing a sermon by Rev. Jack Hayford I began to study about ‘praise” in the Word.  “I’m not just talking about praising God for the things he does in my life…our highest praise is given “just because He is God”…just loving Him…worshipping Him…the message literally changed my life. As I studied about praise in the Word I found myself in 1 Cor 13…’the love chapter’…the Living Bible reads: (verse 4-7)

                “Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never

                  haughty or selfish or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable or

                  touchy.  It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.

                  It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.  If you love some-

                  One you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost.  You will always believe in him,

                  and always stand your ground in defending him.

If we would memorize this and live it!  Dramatic changes would occur in our lives!

Jesus said in Matt. 22:37-39  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.”  This is the first and greatest commandment.  The second most important is similar; ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’.”

We can love others in proper prospective only after first loving God.  Then I had to ask myself this question.  How many times do I express more love to others than I express to God?  And now I ask you the same question.  Not for an answer, but something for you to think about and ponder as I did!

As my studies continued on “praise” and “love” they brought me to the “9 fold fruits of the spirit” and that became a part of my study.  When we are born again our life is made new and we have the fruit of the spirit then.  By grace the gifts of the spirit are given.  I began to think about the fact the gifts are emphasized the fruit is not.  The fruit of the spirit demonstrates the very nature and character of our heavenly Father…unlike the “gifts”…the fruit must be cultivated…and that requires time and effort.  In Romans 8:29 The Word says to be conformed to the image of His son.  Being conformed to the image of Jesus simply means taking on His form, His likeness, and His resemblance.  Jesus himself said, “You shall know them by their fruits”…in essence He was saying “You shall recognize my disciples by their character.”  The character building fruits Jesus was speaking of are listed in Gal. 5:22,23.  We cannot be selective about which fruit we cultivate.  We must develop all the fruit (none of them are optional).  Why?  Because Jesus life bore 100-fold of all nine fruits.  Each fruit enables us to better cope with adverse situations that arise in our life.  There is not a situation, trail, or temptation we will ever face that one of the fruits of the spirit will not enable us to overcome.  God wants us to cultivate them all, because He wants us to be over comers.  We cannot be successful over comers if any one of the fruits is missing in our lives, because that particular area will be the very one the devil will concentrate his attack on.

The first fruit listed is love.  That should not be a surprise, “God so loves us that He gave His son. 

1. Love – (Dake’s definition) agape, divine love, a strong ardent, tender, compassionate, devotion to the well being of someone.

There are two benefits to developing the fruit of love.  1 John 4:8 says, “Perfect love casteth out fear.”  The second benefit is ‘love toward the Father’…it enables us to conquer all things.  We need to take the little seed of love that is in our spirits and cultivate it into a healthy plant.  Then we will each have the testimony, “I love God more than I did a year ago and because of that love, I don’t fear like I use too and because of that love growing in me I now overcome things that once defeated me.”

When we cultivate this love we can then say as Paul did in Romans 8:37 “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that love us.”  I believe there are many Christians…they are saved…they may even be filled with the spirit…but don’t really know God…because they have never developed a relationship with Him.   Getting to know the Father is the key to victorious living!

Cultivate love by:

1. Knowing God more and more.  This happens when we are in the word daily…when we commune with Him daily…it also happens when we praise Him daily.
2. Prayer and praising in the spirit.
3. Practice love…toward others.

(Continued next month)

Mona