Praise Is Busting Out All Over

My, but haven’t I been tearful of late? Seems I’m always awash with one of two emotions: Either conviction for falling short of God's glory, or gratitude for deliverance from those shortfalls. By rights, I should generalize “gratitude” to cover His zillions of blessings, blessings I can’t begin to count, or even be aware of. Each heartbeat and breath, for a start. Each coordinated body movement. Each coherent thought. Each physical sensation, whether pleasant or painful. Each cell’s birth, and death. Each rod or cone in my eyes, and my brain’s essential function of making sense of those billions of photon-stimulations.

Father, I thank You for all of these unimaginable blessings that make us who You intended us to be. I feel as if I could read through an anatomy textbook and flood each page with grateful tears. But gratitude for that knowledge hardly scratches the surface of things for which I must thank You, my Lord. Even greater is the eternal wisdom and infinite knowledge You hold out to me in Your Word.

And thanks to the group Third Day for the following worshipful words:

Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness stretches to the skies
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, yeah
Your justice flows like the ocean's tide
I will lift my voice to worship You, my King
I will find my strength in the shadow of Your wings

He is most worthy of praise!

One of my neighbors likes to expound on his idea of “openness” to the cosmos, or whatever, but he misses God’s point completely. When I find myself overwhelmed by the majesty of God’s creation, I must unreservedly look, with gratitude and praise, to my loving and gracious Creator God. When I open my arms to the heavens as an expression of that love and gratitude, His love washes over me in the form of the Lord Christ’s heart-cleansing, life’s blood … and the praise-cycle begins anew. When, as one with the redeemed throng, I bow before God’s eternal Word, whether in speechless adoration or raucous praise, heart-bursting gratitude will gush forth to His declaration of, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34 ESV)