Questions and Answers

At the end of this past summer, I found myself wrestling with God.  I wrote in my journal one night, "I have a feeling that these next few pages will be filled with an intense struggle.  And despite my frustration, I am encouraged by this challenge because I feel that it will draw me closer to You.  Already I feel that it has."

Recently, God has put the question on my heart: Why do I praise Him?

Is it because of all the wonderful things that He has done for me-- sent His son to pay the price of my life, redeemed my broken soul, and claimed me as His daughter?  Is it because of who He is-- King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Almighty One and Prince of Peace?  Do I want something from Him and think I can "butter him up"?  What is my goal or reason for praising the Lord?

The question should not have come as a surprise to me.  It is written in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."  I find myself presented this question at an interesting point in my life.  I have just been brought to a place were God's Word is taught in every classroom, three times a week in chapel, and a regular conversation at dinner (or breakfast, if you're a morning person).

Even as God has been asking me this question, He has also been teaching me the answer.  I praise Christ because He is my lifeline.  I praise Him for everything that He is, everything that He has done, and so much more.  But in the deepest parts of my soul, I praise God because that is what I am made to do.  There is a part of me that cannot survive without singing praise to the Lord.  It longs to worship the Creator in the only place I will ever feel entirely at home, in His presence.

I worship God because I cannot remain silent.  He has sewn song into my heart and praise into my very soul.  The more I realize the true power of worship, the more this part of me grows, until it is healthy and strong.  It is the Spirit of God within me, counseling me when I am lost, interceding for me when I have no words for my pain, and overflowing within me when I cannot contain the joy any longer.

I am made more alive in Christ the more I worship Him.  As my roots grow into His love, I become like a tree planted beside a stream of water.  I truly begin to understand all that He has done for me and the Truth that He is speaking into my life.  

As Paul says in Ephesians 3, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  As I praise God more and more, I have begun to catch a glimpse of this wild, unfailing love.  The more I praise, the more I see it, and the more I must praise in response.  God has begun to teach me the beginnings of His melody, and already I am overwhelmed by it's beauty.