Our first response to God is that our singing should be used to express our praise and gratitude.
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
We want to use singing to express our praise and our thankfulness for what God has done for us. He sent His Son to die on a cross so that you and I could have eternal life with Him. We must not grow numb to that AMAZING reality. We must continue every day singing with thankfulness in our hearts for our underserved salvation.
There are great examples of this all throughout the Bible. I’ve picked two to share with you.
The first praise and worship song mentioned in the Bible is in Exodus. After Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea, the waters closed behind them defeating the Egyptian army. God had saved them from their slavery and had safely led them out of Egypt. Listen to their response….
Exodus 14:31 “When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses. Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord.”
The next 18 verses explain the message of this song…here are a few of the lines…
“I will sing to the Lord for He is highly exalted”“The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation”
“Your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power”
“Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy”
“The Lord shall reign forever and ever”
They were pumped up about God’s victory and they praised Him through singing! When we experience victories in our lives, we need to praise Him as well.
But, what about during the hard times of life? When we go through a serious health issue or lose our job or whatever it may be, it is difficult to want to sing to praise God.
Paul and Silas give us an amazing example of praising Him even during the hard times.
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas were serving the Lord together. They were going from town to town sharing about God and strengthening the churches. They had an amazing ministry, but they also faced great persecution. Listen to what happened in Acts 16:22…
“The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
They were stripped, beaten and thrown into jail in chains. They had every earthly reason to give up and quit. If any of us went through even part of that persecution, we would be devastated.
BUT…listen to how they responded…
(v. 25) “But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God.”
It didn’t matter how difficult things got for them. Because of their salvation, they had a reason to praise God and nothing was going to stop that.
There are many other great examples in the Bible as well, but I think these are two great ones of praising Him in times of celebration and praising Him in times of struggle. The Israelites and Paul and Silas all remembered the amazing work God had done in their lives. When they realized how blessed they were, they had no better response, then to sing their praises to God.
Just in the same way, we must sing with thankfulness in our hearts and lift our praises to Him!
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