By: Elizabeth Haarberg

Choices

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

Life is full of choices. What do I want to drink and eat or who do I want to spend my time with are some of the common options of choice. The attitude we have toward God is another choice. Will we praise or complain, love or reject? There are so many choices in the way we approach our relationship with God and how we view him on a daily basis.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Psalm 100:4 New International Version

“Praise the LORD, O my soul! With all that is within me, praise his holy name! Praise the LORD, O my soul! Do not forget all his kind deeds! He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.”
Psalm 103:1-5 NIV

There’s power in being thankful and praising God; it changes us and the way we experience Jesus. Praise opens our hearts to connect with God. When we are thankful, the Holy Spirit moves in mysterious ways in our life. Does this mean we don’t ever complain to God? No, but we are instructed as Christians to be thankful.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 English Standard Version

Drop what you are doing, put on some worship music if you can, raise your hands and begin thanking God. It doesn’t have to be for anything specific; just thank Jesus for dying and rising, the Holy Spirit for filling your body, and anything else that comes to mind. It will change your outlook of life, people, and situations.

I’m attaching a song that reinforces what praise and thankfulness do for us in our relationship with God.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yWmJJMOE8jk&si=-Lh0rDlTGqLUkRRU

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Picture credit: Mary Rooney