Friday, 4 December 2009
Praise Is a Sacrifice
Dr RJ Sing
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name.”
Let’s look at a verse from the book of Proverbs that points to the importance of what we say with our mouths. “*Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21.*
Two things come from the use of the tongue: Death and Life. If we grumble, or if we are negative or self centered, our tongues will bring forth death. But if we are liberated from all negativity and are walking in the praise and worship of God, our tongues will bring forth life.
So, whatever fruit our tongues bring forth, whether sweet or bitter, we are going to eat of it. Further, one of the very significant word in the above verse is the word ‘sacrifice’. Praise is a sacrifice. According to the principles of scripture, a sacrifice requires a death. In the Old Testament with regards to sacrifices, nothing was ever offered to God that had not passed through death. So we see that the sacrifice of praise requires death, the death of the old man. The old man cannot praise God as He desires to be praised. There has to be a death.
Again, we know that a sacrifice costs us something, thus praise is costly. We need to praise God most when we least feel like it. Praise cannot depend on our feelings. It is a sacrifice of our Spirits.
