The Lord has done some amazing things in the past, in Bible history, hasn’t He? And maybe you can point back to some pretty impressive things that He’s done in your past—answers to your prayers, divine interventions, miracles. But no matter how impressive the past is, whether Bible history or your history, God doesn’t want us to spend our time looking backwards, because life stretches out before us. That’s why He tells us in Isaiah 43:18 & 19, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring forth….”
God’s amazing, life-giving works are not contained by or limited to the past. He’s going to do more of what He’s done in the past again in our futures! By faith we can look to the future—the “uncertain” future—with the same sweet satisfaction as we have in remembering the past, because of what the Lord did for us then. You see, ultimately (and in spite of whatever we may be in the midst of right now) God is constant. The same mighty Deliverer He has been in our pasts….He is now and will continue to be in our futures! So what’s the sense of stressing? We can praise Him instead. Whether after-the-fact or in advance, it makes no difference…as far as opportunity to praise Him is concerned.
But it does make a difference with how we’ll feel. When we praise God after He delivers us from our problems, it feels great! However, between deliverances there are troubles…Between mountain tops there are valleys. And when, after God has marvelously worked on our behalf we stop praising Him until He delivers us again—because new troubles have overtaken us—we stop feeling great. In fact, we can even worry ourselves out of the hands of God. But why? The Lord is going to do “new” things for us, right? He’s going to work His wonders again! So, why stop praising Him till He does? All we get out of it is the loss of sweet satisfaction and peace.
Brothers and sisters, God offers us the opportunity to live lives of praise in advance….instead of moments of praise in retrospect. Which do you want? Sweet satisfaction all the time….joy and peace and buoyancy in the middle of life’s storms….or stress-filled lives that are merely punctuated by moments of passing praise and peace? The choice is ours, and our faith will make it.
I choose praise. How about you?