Shouts of Praise 2

“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;”

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

Psalms 47:1   Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!

Psalms 98:4    Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Ezra 3:11  And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.  But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,  so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

Jeremiah 31:7   For thus says the LORD: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

Zephaniah 3:14   Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Zechariah 9:9   Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Luke 19:37  As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,  saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Revelation 19:1  After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,  for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Psalms 95:3    For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

Daniel 7:13  And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

To be close to  God’ is to be in place of heart & mind where we  SHOUT PRAISES, GIVE PRAISE, and SHOUT WITH JOY because we know Him and what He has done, is doing and will do.  I recently read something like this statement in a commentary on this Psalm “because God will not subdue our troubles, trials and worry under us, unless we have allowed Him to choose our life-plan. Live on that plan and you are unconquerable.” We can not expect to live in His blessing if we are not humbly serving, following, obeying, and making Him are all in all.  We cannot expect to know His plan if we are not yielding each day to Him.  Our lives must change. Our choice for each day must begin and end with humbly serving, obeying, and following Him.  What would a day in the life of a person who does this look like?  Would they start and end a day without as much as 5 minutes in His word?  Would they spend more time watching TV or video games or hunting, or shopping, or fill in the blank…?  Would their mind mull over what they have read?  Would they be still and listen for God to speak to them through His word each day?  Would they pray?  Would they seek God’s leading in making decision?    Do you want to know true blessing, rest, peace, joy,  hope, and love to the point your heart bursts with shouts of praise.  Commit your life, each day, to Him, read His word, study His word, listen to others proclaim His word, and above all else humbly serve, honor, follow and obey Him.

All Things Are Possible

With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

I know I struggle at times with various trials and situations.  Do you know what my first thoughts are?  “How can I help make this better?”  Or “Boy this really stinks” or “I’m not going to think about it” or “This person is a jerk” or “why can’t people just get along” or …………  Did you notice not once did the first thought come to me to take it to God. I am not sure why but my first instinct is to assess, plan, react.  God forgive me in not only coming to you first but also having trust in you to handle whatever comes my way.  Our lives would be so much better if we absolutely turned our issues over to God and sought His guidance first.

Matthew 19:23
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible

Genesis 18:14
Is anything too hard for the Lord

Job 42:2
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted

Jeremiah 32:17
‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you

Zachariah 8:9
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid

Luke 1:37
For nothing will be impossible with God