Praise Him When It's Hard

It is Tuesday morning, 5th of July 2022 and may Jesus bless you today. This is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.

Psalm 40:3:

“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”

How are we feeling this morning? Maybe a bit down? We need to sing a new song just like King David did. He was in a miry pit, he called out to the Lord and God brought him out and set him on a rock, on solid ground. That is worth praising Jesus for, isn’t it? There is power in praise. Years ago there was a book written about the power of praise. It is not about your circumstances or about how you feel today, its about the fact that if we praise the Lord, He lifts us up.

Remember when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison in Acts 16:25, what did they do? Sit in the corner and cry? No, they started singing hymns. There was a great earthquake, the prison doors were opened, and they were free. It is so easy to sing when things are going well but to sing when things are not going well - that’s a different story. I remember sitting at the dining room table in our little pole and dagga house about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I was witnessing to an alcoholic. This man had lost everything and I was saying to him, “God will undertake for you.” Just then we heard banging on our tin roof, massive hail stones were falling down, our beautiful green maize crop that was standing tall was flattened in about five minutes! I was devastated. This alcoholic was watching me and I gritted my teeth and said, “I am still going to praise the Lord, irrespective.” We couldn’t even drive around the fields in our pick-up. It was so wet and the maize crop was lying flat on the ground. I was saying in my heart, “Lord, what are You doing to me?” He was watching me and there were tears in his eyes. He said, “Angus, why is God doing this to you?” I said, “No, He is not.” I said, “I am going to praise Him anyway.” I did and we sang praises to Him. Three days later that maize crop stood up and we reaped a massive crop that year. The stalks had a bit of a bend in it, but they were full of maize.

Praise the Lord!

And because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives!

Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.