Here's to Hope!!..Cheers!!!

People rose and praise began to spill from their hearts.

Praise changes you, and it is serious business!
Praise is willful !!
We must not wait....on our emotions to praise and thank the only One, who can change our situation.
He longs to move in our lives.

Sometimes we praise with arms held high...
Sometimes with heads bowed and in perfect stillness, we praise Him...
But, always, always...with our very lives...we shall speak...
And He sees,
and He hears..
and when we get serious about praising Him...
He gets excited about blessing us.

The praise we willingly give Him,...moves our eyes...
...from our self....to the cross
...and..
...from the cross.....to hope.

Our pitiful lives CAN be resurrected from the deadness and apathy that has invaded our souls.
But we must first, seek Him and His mercy..

Our hearts once broken can then restored.
Here we have hope..
All things made new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Beginning again..
The cries of our hearts are carried to the Father on wings of praise.
Here, our hearts are laid bare...our intention is known...
We fall sweetly at the mercy of our Maker...

Praise to the only God...who can !
Praise Him and thank Him for you are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)
You have purpose!
For at the heart of praise you can hope yet again!

May our Praise be fit for a King,
He hears more than words...
He hears more than sound...
Our hearts and intentions are as incense,.....rising before His throne..

Remember gladly, that...Praise is serious business.....and it will change you, when you decide to willfully spill it from your heart!!!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity...." Jeremiah 29:11-14a

"An Audience of One"

"For the word of God is alive and powerful.
It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.
It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires" Hebrews 4:12

As I stood there, I held my arms out...my palms were up...I was praising in a sanctuary filled with people. I had an audience of One. And that is all that mattered.

In my life, especially in earlier years, I was often concerned with 'what' people thought of me. I think a counselor would say I was 'approval' driven. 
It was exhausting.
Later on, and at some point, I didn't care what anyone thought.
It was lonely.
Fortunately, I realized extremes are not necessarily healthy either.

As I have gotten older, I have moved through the extremes and have found a balance and a place of freedom.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that if I allowed God to be my only audience,
the rest would fall into place.
When I surrender, whether I am praising Him in a sanctuary or alone in my home, I realize yet again, so much of what I do, is never about me.
When I offer who I am to Him, and simply raise my offering
in sweet abandon to the God of the Universe...
that is precisely the moment it all makes sense.
My audience of One smiles lovingly.
It is refreshing.

Choosing to praise Him and to live in a way that is befitting a King,
is not about outward appearance.
It is instead, always about the surrender and the leaning into Him.

It is about humbling our hearts before Him.. see (James 4:10)
It is about choosing to take every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. see (2 Corinthians 10:5)
It is about learning to trust Him, when we can't see which way He is leading. see (Romans 8:28)

We must choose not to fear what others may think when the Holy Spirit moves in us to worship freely, and live a life surrendered.

For it is in that moment, when we respond to the Spirit of the Living God, that we are finally set free.
And it is good.