Employed for Life

If I told you that you have a life long occupation and that you will be employed for life what would you response be? So many look forward to that day when they can retire and sit back and enjoy life collect your pension or social security and be done with it.

Some today are enjoying that precious moment right now. That is a wonderful achievement. Yet even in retirement you have been given life long employment. You dare not retire from this occupation because its the one occupation that God created you for. Every creature is happiest when it is doing what it is made for. Birds were crated to fly in the air and fish were made to swim in the waters. This is their natural element. Christians are made to glorify God; and we are never in our element till we are praising him. The happiest moments you have ever spent were those in which you lost sight of everything inferior, the problems of life and just bowed before very presence of God with joy and blissful praise. You did not realize it but you were actually in your element. You were doing what you were created to do!

Praise is what I do! 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name . (Heb 13:15).

Its in this verse we can do what we have been called to do! The Hebrew writer who sets the stage for us as he comes to the close of his epistle that true and continual praise is in order. After all that God has done for us through His SON Jesus Christ we are to Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,” because in so doing you will answer the end of your being.

When your whole soul is full of praise, you have at last reached the goal that your heart is aiming at. Your ship is now in full sail: your car is in the right lane. Your life moves smoothly and safely on. This is the groove along which it was made to slide. You are in your groove so to speak Before, you were trying to do what you were not made to do; but now you are at home. For the praise of God your new nature was fashioned, and it finds rest therein. Keep to this work. Do not degrade yourself by a less divine employment!

We are heading towards Thanksgiving and as we approach that holiday our praise needs to match the occasion. Oh give thanks unto the Lord! Praise is An expression of worship which recognizes and acknowledges God as the ultimate source and giver of all good gifts

The Psalmist Ps 119:108 said Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O LORD Psalm 95 opens

95 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3  For the LORD is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

4  In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

5  The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land. (Ps 95:1–5).

Praise n the OT the words for praise mainly used are hālal, the root meaning of which is connected with making a noise; yādâ, which was originally associated with the bodily actions and gestures which accompany praising; and zāmar, which is associated with the playing or singing of music. In the NT eucharistein (lit. ‘to give thanks’) is the favourite word, implying on the part of the person who praises the attitude of one more intimate with the person praised than in the more formal eulogein, ‘to bless’.

The whole of the Bible is punctuated with outbursts of praise. They rise spontaneously from the ‘basic mood’ of joy which marks the life of the people of God. God takes pleasure and delight in his works of creation,

Lets look at this one verse;

Praise goes to God through Jesus

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Eph 5:20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Col 3:17). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Praise is to be a sacrifice

22  And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,

and tell of his deeds in songs of joy! (Ps 107:22). 17  I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of the LORD.

18  I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

19  in the courts of the house of the LORD,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD! (Ps 116:17–19). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.”

To praise God continually will need a childlike faith in him. You must believe his word, or you will not praise his name. Doubt snaps the harp-strings. Question mars all melody. Trust him, lean on him, enjoy him—you will never praise him else. Unbelief is the deadly enemy of praise.

Faith must lead you into personal communion with the Lord. It is to him that the praise is offered, and not to our fellow-men. a real joy in him. Dear brothers and sisters, be sure that you do not lose your joy. If you ever lose the joy of religion, you will lose the power of religion. To praise God continually, you need to cultivate perpetual gratitude, and surely it cannot be hard to do that! Remember, every misery averted is a mercy bestowed; every sin forgiven is a favour granted; every duty performed is also a grace received. The people of God have an inexhaustible treasury of good things provided for them by the infinite God, and for all this they should praise him. I pray you, be not only a little grateful, but overflow with it.

Praise should be audible