Punctured Praise
I went to sleep last night while playing music over my speaker. At 4:30 A.M this particular song ministered me out of my sleep.
“The sacrifice of praise” by William Murphy
The dream: There was a huge storm of tornadoes that hit an area. This storm somehow leads me to a praise circle with a group of random people. We were repeatedly singing the chorus of the song.
We offer, the sacrifice of praise. We offer, the sacrifice of praise. We offer, the sacrifice of praise.
As we were singing we were going around the circle saying what praise we were sacrificing. I noticed that I was the only person sacrificing money. Looking in my wallet I had a few ones, a $5 bill, and a $50. I was truly thinking that if we go around a few more times I wouldn’t have anything else to give. This man came and sat next to me. He asked me what I was willing to let go of to have a seat next to God. Money can’t buy you anything for someone that has everything. We cannot always just pray our way out. Sometimes we have to praise him through the storm.
Now, let's go back a bit. The area that the storm hit was my undergrad college campus. That was years’ worth of a season that I did not praise God or even engage as much as I should have. I still had a undeniable love for God. I was just a little wounded. There were experiences at school that I just never imagined experiencing. I lost my brother while in college. My family had drama and everything. Though I never cursed God, I got a little distant. My heart was a little sore. I was indeed the walking wounded.
Boom, now I knew exactly what my dream was saying.
Sometimes life will get the best of us. We will experience seasons where quitting appears as the only option. Gratefulness will sometimes appear as a distant emotion. Many times, our emotions may overwhelm us. That’s when our praise is a sacrifice.
Sacrifice: destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else.
A punctured praise! It won't always feel good but he will make it all better. We lift our hands until he lifts our heads. Glorify him until everything around us shifts. We have to cry out to him even in our brokenness. EVEN IN OUR BROKENNESS!! You don’t fix your car before you take it to the mechanic. So, you don’t need to be whole to go before God. Go In your brokenness and allow him to take your shattered pieces and make you whole again.