An old song was running through my head the other day and something in it started me thinking. It was a really familiar song, but I realized I had never really thought about what it was truly saying. Here is the line that started me on this journey, "We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord..."
Nothing out of the ordinary there. Look a little closer. "The sacrifice of praise..." To be a sacrifice it most cost you something to lose it. Are we really bringing a sacrifice of praise? Is it costing us something to praise Him? I think we are really bringing our gifts of praise. We praise god when things are good and praise flows easily and freely. Now God honors all praise, but He desires our sacrifice of praise. When praise costs us something. When we praise God even when we don't feel like it or when everything is going wrong, that is when we are truly bringing a sacrifice of praise and it is a delight to the Lord. Paul said it this way, "Rejoice in all things..." A gift is given from our abundance, a sacrifice is given at our loss. Are our praises simply gifts or are they truly sacrifices?
