Month: July 2024

Praise: A Well-Taken Reminder

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For the last three weeks I’ve been focused on a question, a personal spiritual dialogue that I’ve shared with a few others. The question could be stated several ways, but what I’m after is an answer that enriches/refreshes relationship with God. Here are variations of the question:

  • Which is more important, focusing on what God does for us or who He is to us?
  • In my experience in the Church, is the focus on what God does or who He is?
  • What do my prayers reflect, a focus on works or on identity?
  • How do believers achieve balance between doing for and with God versus being with and knowing God?

In ways I’ll never be able to explain, the timeliness of reading the right book at the right time surfaced again this afternoon. I recently picked it up off clearance at Books A Million.

In Chapter 4 entitled “Jesus’ Prayer of Praise,” McHenry shared that Richard Foster says adoration has two forms, praise and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving expresses appreciation for what God has done; praise acknowledges who God is.

This struck me through a simple word-praise. I have been contrasting the words adoration and thanksgiving without thought to the word praise. Accepting this teaching that they are really all the same brings some relief to my analytical brain.

That final question in the list above comes from how I’ve been approaching prayer the last three weeks. I’ve leaned more in the adoring lane than the thanking or asking lane-an effort to discipline my focus on relationship. A reminder to praise is well taken.

By the way, in this chapter McHenry shared a terrific list to help us all improve our adoration. Seemed worth sharing.

Working From not For

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This is my third and final post reflecting on Dutch Sheets’ The Pleasure of His Company. Chapter 29, “The Connection,” was the highlight for me. Maybe because he references Old Testament characters I’ve been reading about the last few weeks. But I’m pretty sure it’s because he drills down on a topic I’ve been chewing on, again, for the last two weeks. What matters more, who you are or what you do?

That’s not really his intention, but that’s where it goes. And, for the record, he doesn’t really give you an answer. Here are my four highlights for illustration:

  • “At times, the most spiritual thing we can do is the most natural and practical. Work is practical yet very spiritual; feeding hungry people is, as well; nurturing our children is practical, time-consuming, tiring-and very spiritual. Keepin’ it simple is sometimes keepin’ it spiritual.”
  • “To be holy doesn’t mean being separate ‘from sin,’ but rather ‘unto God’…Holiness isn’t sinlessness.”
  • “…strength lies not in the perfection of my outward performance but the connection of my inward heart.”
  • “There’s a vast difference between performing for acceptance and performing from acceptance.“

There’s a noticeable difference when a relationship has shifted to from away from for. Sometimes others can see it better than you; sometimes not. If you’re really not sure, the best person to check in with is your Creator. He knows what it means to live from illustrated by instructing Moses to tell everyone, “I AM sent me.”

Go with what He tells you. If He says your offering brings him pleasure, that’s all you need. You’re in good company.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash