God is good!....All The Time!

How many times have you heard this "chant" being said from the altar of your church, "God is good!! All the time!!! (and) All the time!!!!(of course the entire...well at least most of the congregation who is awake will reply)God is good!!!! I have come up with a phrase or at least I think I have ,someone else as clever as I am could have thought up the same phrase...anyway the phrase is " automatic praising" I hear and see it so often in church and quite honestly it is a pet peeve of mine to observe people rummaging through their purses,looking through their wallets,biting their nails or picking their nose very non chalantly when suddenly the person in the altar request a praise, they respond with such a lack of enthusiasm. Seriously...why bother? Argghh! It irks me so. Because praise is something so wonderful. It is to be offered to our God in honesty,love and sincerity.

Psalm 66 tells us " 1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth! 2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! 3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. 4 All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name."

God is so wonderful, so much so that praise should spew out of our mouth with ease just because of who He is. If we were to think about all the good things He has done for us and the fact that He sent His Son to die for our sins, praise shouldn't be a problem.
Tina, a very funny friend of mine whose humor bordered inappropriateness would get as irked as I was with automatic praisers and everytime someone would repeat the "God is good all the time" prompt., she would tell me that they might as well respond to the prompt with "Ham and Cheese" so it would sound like "God is good, Ham and cheese." Offensive? Yes! Just as offensive as wording praise insincerely. Just as offensive as not wanting to praise Him. Some say that praise is difficult for them because they don't have the eloquent praise "lingo "as others do. And it often reminds me of a song I heard years ago and it was one of my favorites..

"Even the praise comes from You
Every prayer that I raise comes from You
Fill my mouth with words of worship
And I'll give them back to You
'Cause Lord they're not my own
They come from You alone
Even the Praise, every feeling and phrase
Even the Praise comes from You"

There are so many levels to your personal life with Christ and one of those levels is to get to a point of spiritual maturity where you realize the greatness of God and the praise will flow out of your mouth with such beautiful fluidity.
Praise Him for who He is !
Praise Him for what He has done!
Praise Him for His love and Kindness and for His mercy and grace!
But praise Him with an honest heart, a heart willing and hungry to praise!
God Bless You!!!