by We sang this song in worship today and the following stanza really touched me:
“Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name”
No matter what I’m going through, God is good. God is in control. Blessed be His name.
Has the ‘road been marked with suffering’? I haven’t lost a child to cancer, nor known the pain of infidelity. I have been affected by the cutting sting of divorce. I’ve lost pieces of myself in friendships gone wrong. I’ve been misunderstood, wrongly accused. I’ve been financially broken time and again. I’ve cried with hurting women, and broken-hearted children. You can praise through the tears.
There’s ‘pain in the offering’. When you set aside your circumstances and praise Him, it sweetens the pain. Think what He gave for us…what it cost Him. His own Son. Our pain should pale in comparison. But the awesome thing is, He understands how hard it is for us. He calls this kind of worship a sacrifice.
“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.” Hebrews 13:15
‘The sacrifice of praise’… what a wonderful concept. What is neat is that it drags our concentration off the world we see and focuses it on the One who makes all of life worth living. I love Proverbs 9:10…a heart of awe (fear) when thinking about Him and learning of Him and knowing the Holy One IS understanding. Thank you for making praise the issue.
Very often it is through the trying times that we become more like Him– we’re often too stubborn to see or depend on Him in the good times. Thanks for this reminder!