Page 6 - praiseandthanks

my fierce headache and I thank you sincerely for your perfect

plan for me”. Praise is the way of putting God in charge of my
headache. Empty repetitions empty our praise of God’s

presence when we need it.

So now let us visualise something unforeseen and terrible

happening in our lives. The circumstances are beyond our
belief. We just don’t know what to do. We don’t know where to

turn. We try to pray. We seek advice but our whole world has

fallen apart. We just don’t have the strength, the insight or even
the enduring faith to deal with it all. The only one who can

possibly deal with it is God Himself. But what do we do, cry out
in pain to Him? We can do that but on the other hand the Word

of God tells us to praise God for everything, everything,

everything, praise Him for it all just as it is, AS IS and thank
Him for His perfect plan for us. Don’t keep thinking about the

crisis; just put God into it, believing that He is IN the praise.

P&T, praise and thanks go together. God’s plan and purpose
for creation involve our turning to Him in trouble by means of

praise as a way of having Him take over. “All the strings are to
be in His hands.”

Therefore, all the mistakes we make in life, our faith doubts, our

temptations, unholy images, our failures, our falling away from

integrity, our acceptance of bad will, our deliberate sins, even
horrific sickness and death , our going to prison itself, our

helplessness in addictions or the addictions of those around us

God knows all about it, He really does understand. He foresees
everything; He uses everything; He gets good out of everything,

especially through our praise and thanks that the crisis has

provided a meeting place with the Almighty. God deals with
things the way they are, all in the profundity of His eternal

wisdom.

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