ALTAR OF PRAISE: OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL, 8TH DECEMBER 2018.

MEMORISE:

Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Psalm 65:1

READ: 2 Chronicles 5:13-14

13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD;

14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.

MESSAGE:

In today’s memory verse, the Psalmist assures God that praise awaits Him in Zion. How remarkable! When God comes to your home or heart, will He find praises there or will He find complaints. If you can have a place in your heart and home when God can find praise at all times, He will surely draw close to you. 

Solomon did not ask God for anything when he became king, neither did he complain about all the issues his father left for him to resolve in the kingdom; all he did was to make a sacrifice of worship to God that no one had ever made before, and God paid him a visit with a blank cheque (1 Kings 3:4-5). When Paul and Silas were in prison, they didn’t complain and query God; rather, they turned the prison into a house of praise, and they got a special visit from God. 

As soon as God arrived in the prison, there was an earthquake and all their chains were broken (Acts 16:23-26). When the walls of Jericho stood before Joshua and the people of Israel, they did not begin to whine and question God; instead, they built a praise altar around the walls of Jericho, and the walls fell down flat (Joshua 6). Is there a problem giving you sleepless nights? Turn those sleepless nights into praise nights unto God and see all your problems fall down flat.

Do you know that whenever God looks upon the earth, He is looking for people praising Him in spirit and in truth? John 4:23 says:

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”

Those who are close to me know that as I go about my activities all through the day, I am always singing praises to my God. I do this because I want Him to know that anytime He looks at my direction, He will find praises there. I want Him to be with me all day and never leave, because he gets an unending dose of praises from me. 

Many years ago, I promised an elder I our church that I was going to visit him but that I would only be staying for five minutes, because I had a lot of things to attend to that day. The elder, based on his personal knowledge of me, knew very well how to make me stay longer than five minutes. Before I got to his house, he had music playing- hymns and other sweet gospel music. 

I felt so comfortable in his house that I did not realize when I had spent more than an hour there! If I, as a child of God, could get carried away by praises to my Father, how much more God Himself? Psalm 22:3 says God inhabits the praises of His people; so if you want Him to be with you always, make your heart an altar of praise for Him.

KEY POINT:

When you meet someone who lives a lifestyle of praise to God, you have met someone who always has God at his side.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Daniel 3, John 8:31-47

AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE

HYMN 1: NOW THANK WE OUR GOD

1. Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

2. Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And guard us through all ills in this world, till the next!

3. All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven—
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.