God's Will for You Today, Part Three Praise Him!

1Thesselonians 5: 18 - give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

We often lament our seeming inability to discern the will of God for our lives. We can find ourselves facing life changing decisions and seeking the will of God only to hear nothing. Too often, we have decided and then seek "confirmation" as opposed to seeking the will of God before making decisions. The bible is filled with direction on the will of God but nowhere does it seem clearer then in Paul's closing remarks to the Church at Thessalonica (1^st Epistle). As the Apostle Paul is signing off his letter, he provides seven instructions which he refers to as, "God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Seven of course is God's number of perfection and each of these imperatives are given their own separate verse, even though they are contained within only two sentences. No matter what circumstance you may face in your life, you can match it up with these seven imperatives to discover the will of God for you in Christ Jesus!

So far we have seen it is God's will for you to be happy and to develop a close personal relationship with Him through a God consciousness of prayer. The third imperative the Apostle Paul outlines for us is found in verse 18. We are made to praise God! It is his will for your life to give Him thanks in all circumstances. Psalm 100, is noted as a psalm for giving thanks:

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100 1-5

Who is to praise God? All the earth! How are we to praise Him? With gladness! Why? Because we know that we are His; His love endures forever, and He is faithful through all generations. When we truly reflect upon this in light of the continual disappointment we find in man and the world, it is no wonder the Psalmist insists that we should only enter the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise!

In the Gospel of Luke we see Jesus being praised by his disciples and the hypocritical Pharisees asking Jesus to rebuke His disciples. Jesus' response should be sobering for us all today:

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:40

Don't let the stones out praise you! When is the right time to praise God? Always! That was what we were made to do. God does not want us focusing on our circumstances because while all things are possible with God, we can often talk defeat into His planned victories for our lives. In the Old Testament we find the King Jehoshaphat being informed that a vast army is marching toward him with the intent to make war. While he was alarmed in his own understanding, the king called for a fast throughout Judah and inquired of the Lord. The following was the prayer King Jehoshaphat lifted to God:

"O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.'

"But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." 2Chronicles 20:6-12

The king's prayer is bathed in praise, as ours should be today as well. He also reflected the problem, but did not say it was a problem for God. He wraps up the prayer by admitting that he can do nothing without God, so they await His decision. His "eyes" are upon God, as ours needs to be when the armies of the world march against us. The answer from God was to not worry about the coming invasion because the battle is not yours, but the Lord's. This is another lesson we can still apply today in our daily lives. When it seems that the obstacles coming against us are overwhelming we should reflect to God in praise and prayer, with humility and remember that ultimately, the battle is the Lord's. King Jehoshaphat goes even further though the next day when the battle would occur:

After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

       "Give thanks to the LORD,
       for his love endures forever."

As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 2Chronicles 20: 21-23

If the king had relied upon his own understanding of the situation he would have despaired or even retreated. Faced with overwhelming odds the king reflected to God in praise and prayer and upon being assuaged, the king did not flinch in his belief in what God can do. He went to war with assigned people singing the praises of God ahead of his armies. The result? God confounded the enemies and they destroyed each other. The faith of the king and the praises to God led the way as the battle was won by God for His people.

That is how God expects us to give thanks as well. It is easy to be thankful when everything is going well. It is the testing times of faith where we need to still be praising God. Remember Paul and Silas praising God at midnight even though they were in stocks after being severely flogged. The resulting earthquake released them from their shackles. Many Christians today find themselves in shackles after life has flogged them for some time. Buried in their situations and unable to see the way out of the battle, God is saying to praise Him! The praise breaks the shackles! The praise sets you free!

Are your eyes upon Him in the midst of your problems today? Perhaps you have forgotten that the battle is the Lord's. Perhaps you have allowed your circumstances to dictate your praise, or lack thereof. God is saying to you today that it is His will for your life to give Him thanks in all circumstances. It is not His will for you to be flogged and beaten by life. It is not His will for you to live your life in shackles. Bathe your prayer in praise today and remember that what is impossible for man, is always possible with God. That is His will for you today in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!

Anthony Wade February 21, 2008