Of Praise and Progress

Praising God is an act of worship that He created us to do. Praising God isn't just singing a song about Him. It can be as simple as an act of kindness towards another person. Praise can be the way you live your life, the way you act and react towards others, the grace that you show to those that you don't particularly like, your thoughts, actions, anything. One of the most important acts of praise is prayer and God has been teaching me the importance of prayer daily. Recently, I have been praying about some very prominent, difficult decisions that I have to make in my life and nothing has been more important than making sure I am praising God while seeking his guidance.
 At first, it started out by recognizing thoughts that I was having that were less than glorifying to God. I didn't see anything wrong with thinking something hateful or judgmental towards someone because of the environment that I am in. When I started to change my thought process, God started to open my eyes to certain things in my life that I didn't want to admit were wrong. Some of the music I had been listening to had not been encouraging me but tearing me down so I replaced it with something positive. Certain choices that I had made, that I was so convinced were right, were proven to be wrong. I wasn't praising God, I was praising myself. I was doing what I wanted, not what He had called me to do. God was beginning to push me forwards, which was opposite of the negative pulls that I had been feeling lately, all because I began to praise Him again.
 After months of prayer, assurance from God and some significant changes in my life, I have seen progress. I have faced problems that are very common to college students but I have learned that the larger my problem is, the more discouraging and difficult my circumstances, the greater my crisis, the more important it is to praise God. God's promise of love, power, grace, wisdom, mercy, might and the promise that He will fight for us is certain. I've learned that there isn't a better way to show my obedience and faith in God than to praise Him and thank Him for all that He has done. Even if my whole world seems like it's falling apart. God is there. He will never give me anything that I can't handle because He loves me and He will honor my praise. To God be the glory.

Psalm 136