40 Words for 40 Days: Day 33

Hello there! Tonight, on this 8th day, our word is SACRIFICE.

    Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a SACRIFICE of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

    Since our five years of residency in Hawaii, a tiny book has influenced the way I sort trials. Prison to Praise, by Merlin Carothers, is that book. Merlin explains the true story of his prodigal life and the redemptive way God drew him to joy. Instead of fighting the terrible struggles he faced, he began to thank God for them. Such counter intuition sounds ludicrous, but when he did, the hardships often fell to the wayside like paper-thin accusations against him. The freedom he found, by accepting suffering, as necessary, filtered through God’s hands, was miraculous.

    I began to thank God then, through his economy, so that nothing he’d filtered through his hands would be wasted on us through stubbornness, bitterness or rebellion. I accepted that each painful thing, would somehow lead us closer to him, even if it meant just in the realization of our need of a Savior!

    I’ve realized since then that to utter praises, in this SACRIFICIAL manner, usurps the powerful hold evil has on our perspectives. Satan has nothing praiseworthy in his existence. He is a cornered beast whose temporal victories will never win over God’s eternal plans. Satan has nothing to praise; his only relief of evil is to be destructive to all we hold dear. He’s jealous of our relationship with God, and for God’s love that heals, strengthens, and blesses our lives. Long ago, through the unleashing of pride, he traded that love relationship for rebellion. Satan remembers the taste of the fruit of praise on his lips, but can’t ever have it again. It’s the very reason we must call to God in thankfulness for even our hardest days, in a SACRIFICIAL way of praise. God hears. He loves to commune with us through trust and faith. He will turn our sorrows to victories, our suffering to joys, but while we wait, Satan has no foothold when we continue to offer the SACRIFICE of praise!

    God bless you and keep you until we meet again!