Praise the LORD!

As the New Year approaches, some may be considering making a New Year’s resolution. I invite you to consider adding “I will praise the Lord” to your list. As I read this psalm, I began to realize how much I need such enthusiastic encouragement and how seldom I offer such praise spontaneously.

I normally supplement my use of the devotions in Eternity for Today with the hymns in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. I welcome every opportunity to sing or read the many songs of praise there.

But I can’t remember when adoration or praise spontaneously filled my prayers. Remember the ACTS of prayers many of us were once taught as a guide to complete prayer? My personal prayers are often filled with confession and supplication. There is also a fairly regular amount of thanksgiving. But I seldom seem to find room in my prayers to adore God, to praise God. How about you?

Many of us know times of silent praise that stir in us as we gaze at a spectacular sunset or some awesome work of nature. What would happen if we deliberately looked at what’s around us every day in the ordinary things of life and recognized the amazing gifts and grace of God in these things, too? Might such moments also provoke a regular word of praise in our prayers?

Amazing God, we praise and adore you in this and every season. Amen. — KW