Praising God!

I write, I am a writer, but I don't always have wonderful words, witty sayings, or that exact touching phrase.  Yet, I love to praise God. He is amazing, awesome, brilliance beyond my comprehension or imagination.  Every day I have my quiet devotional time.  I like to write out a lot of my prayers because if I don't, I tend to get distracted. When I was in youth group I learned the phrase ACTS for a way to pray to God.  A - Adoration. C - Confession. T - Thanksgiving. S - Supplication.  No matter how many ways to pray I have learned, this is the one that sticks with me.  So for Adoration I like to look through the Psalms and then write out a verse or 2, or like today, a whole Psalm that describes God's greatness.  Then I re-write it in my own words, clearly stating how I believe it or see it in Him. It is amazing to me how praising God strengthens me.  Praising God, brings me peace.  I don't know anyone else in my life that I praise, give credit to, or talk of their great things and it benefits me.  Yet with God it does.  Here is my example....

I started today overwhelmed.  A simple conversation I had about planning for the future, retirement money, and really what monetary value was there in being just a mom had my brain in a tailspin.  They were right... If my husband died tomorrow I would have nothing.  I remembered words of advice from a wedding guest 19 years ago ringing in my head...  Don't just be a wife and mom because if he leaves you, you will have nothing.  I started to confidently quote bible verses in my head about my God being greater, My God providing for me....  But it wasn't until I sat alone in my room this morning, reading the Psalms, looking for those verses I would start my prayer time out with, adoration.  

I wrote down all of Psalm 93, but it was this verse right in the middle that stood out to me. "But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore— the LORD above is mightier than these!" (Psalms 93:4 NLT)

I felt like my brain was in a storm, a fearful, worried mess.  But....  That little word.  No matter how stormy my world is, or could ever become, if I lost everything, if the worst of my fears happened, if, if, if.... The LORD, is mightier than any of that.  And there I sat, writing out my praises to God, and He strengthened me.  I was writing and praying to Him about how wonderful He is and it benefitted me. It gave me this incredible peace.  It removed my fear and anxiety. The stress in my shoulders was now relaxed because I was praising God.  God doesn't tell us in the Bible to praise Him because He is vain, He is glory hungry, or He needs some kind of pat on the back.  He tells us to Praise Him, because He knows it will benefit us. 

The LORD is king! He is robed in majesty. Indeed, the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength. The world stands firm and cannot be shaken. Your throne, O LORD, has stood from time immemorial. You yourself are from the everlasting past. The floods have risen up, O LORD. The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves. But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore— the LORD above is mightier than these! Your royal laws cannot be changed. Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever. (Psalms 93:1-5 NLT)