Isaiah 25:1 NIV. Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.

God who created the heavens and the earth is worthy of Praise. He is our creator and the very breathe we breath is His gift to us. This alone merits our Praise!

The English word ‘praise’ has a French origin, ‘preisier’, and ‘preisier’ means ‘to prize’ – and that gives us a little bit of a glimpse of what the word ‘praise’ really means. To praise God means to prize God. 

The word ‘prize’, of course, means ‘to value’, ‘to esteem’, ‘to cherish’ something or someone, but it also means to estimate of worth So, when we praise God, we are valuing Him, we are esteeming Him, we are estimating His worth. Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” In this alone we praise Him!

The absence of praise indicates that something is wrong or missing.

Praise is like the soul of a flower. “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

If a plant withers or growth is stagnant, it is like the soul of that flower is experiencing a brutal winter or hot suffocating summer.

Examine this a little closer you’ll see a brittle sun-parched flower or the freezer burn of an iced-over soul.

The question arises, can this be bought back to life with fresh living water? Selah

A blossoming bud needs the right amount of sun and water to blossom into the beautiful flower it is meant to be. We are no different, we need the Son and Fresh living Water to help us combat the seasons of drought or the icy Winter waters that will steal our praise.

So much of what we hear is just negative, and we have to make a deliberate effort to be positive and counter the culture we live in.

Praise is a great tool to help us achieve an enriching life.

During a conversation with a friend, I shared how amazing praise and worship was at my church. Believing she would ask me more about my experience, she instead said she could never understand praise and worship or why it even mattered, because after all, as far as she was concerned God didn’t do anything for her.

She actually said God was mean. She only saw God of the old testament. She didn’t recognize Him as the God who’d always provided a ram in the bush and miracles for his people.

Unfortunately, her picture of God was distorted. She needed the Son and His Fresh Living Water to counteract her skewed perception and her sun-scorched belief.

Living with a heart of thanksgiving and praise unto God, we are spiritually healthy. Paul said in Philippians 4:4—

 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I say, Rejoice.

    Praise has the power for resurrection.

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise you… Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

In this time of unrest and chaos let our eyes look onto the hills which cometh our help. Our help cometh from the Lord. Oh, spring forth soul and discover or rediscover, the power of praise!