Open a Praisebook Account

UV 1343/10,000 Open A Praisebook Account
And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
2 Chronicles 20 v 22

Just as many people in today’s world open their Facebook account and make posts of brags in terms of snaps and comments, each of us need to open our own Praisebook account. Many people think in the natural that the only times we should praise and thank God is when things are going well for us. But scripture opens our minds to the counter intuitive method of the Israelites. The kingdom of Judah under Jehoshaphat faced a multitude of mortal and powerful enemies on many sides but when the king led the people in praise and worship of Jehovah el Shaddai, the Lord set ambushments against their powerful foes and they were defeated.

Each of us has unique experiences of God’s saving grace in our lives and we should record these posts in our Praisebook. The posts will then be our bulwark of defence, our weapon that ensures victory in life’s great battles. The uni-verse states that “as they began to sing and praise..”. It implies that the Lord does not wait for us to finish but He marshalls His supernatural forces as soon as we open our hearts and mouths to praise and worship Him. Scripture says, that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise God in any situation, adverse or favourable, we are inviting His presence into our midst and He undertakes to do on behalf of the faithful beyond their asking or imagination.

Each of us has challenges and inhibiting factors or limitations of ability, resources, knowledge, understanding and our weaknesses of character. When we praise the Lord the Lord removes our inhibitions and limitations. When St Paul was confined in a Roman prison, he and the others imprisoned with him began to sing and praise. At the time, the Lord set an “ambushment” of a different kind- an earthquake that threw open the prison doors and freed them from their shackles. We would have thought the “ambushment” happened so that Paul and others could escape from the prison. The prison commander drew his sword to kill himself but Paul called out to him that they were still around and that there was no need to despair and kill himself. The prison commander then surrendered his life to Jesus. When we open our Praisebook, the Lord sets in motion a series of miracles and miraculous breakthroughs in our lives.

Prateep V Philip