Formed and Transformed for and by Praise

UV 1307/10,000 Formed and Transformed for Praise
This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Isaiah 43 v 21

The Lord has formed believers for Himself. He has formed them and shaped our lives in order to continually pray and praise Him. When we praise Him, the enemy will flee. When we praise Him, we will rejoice with the angels who continually worship Him. When we praise Him, we have victory. When we praise Him, He will help us. When we praise Him, we are blessed. When we praise Him, we will neither be confused nor ashamed. When we praise Him, we will not fear or be anxious. When we praise Him, His shadow or His presence will be with us. We are formed for praising the Lord and we are transformed by praising the Lord. The word praising has two actions in it : “pray” and “sing”. When we pray and sing, we are praising the Lord even as the birds twitter and chirp to praise God early every morning all round the world and all through time.

We are the branch of His planting, the work of His hands, that He may be glorified. Praising God is the highest and best use of our minds, hearts and mouth. It enables us. It ennobles us. We shall inherit the promised land for ever. We shall be declared righteous in the eyes of the Lord. We will be called the trees of righteousness. He will give us spiritual beauty instead of our earthly ashes, the oil of joy instead of a spirit of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. We are a special people formed to declare His praise. He has set us apart to be holy. He has anointed us. We are to worship the Lord in a special way. We should not be shaken by events around us or be worried about our circumstances.

We need to glorify God in everything we do. We need to praise Him for the glory of His grace. Not only should we praise Him but we ourselves in spirit and body should be for the praise of His glory. We should offer continually the sacrifice of praise. It is a sacrifice as we need to kill our own egos and our own desire for praise and appreciation. We are a peculiar people called out of darkness to "show forth" implying non-verbally and without utterance of a word the praise of the Lord. We are like a lotus whose roots are in the miry clay. Our roots are mired in dirt, dust and clay. But our petals are gleaming, moist, beautiful and glorifying the Lord. We are in the world but not of the world. We are of the Word. We float on the surface of the water but the water will never drown us.

Prateep V Philip