Putting on Praise by Lisa Burkhardt Worley
It was a mammoth task.
Over five years after moving into our house, I finally took on the household job of going through boxes of books, stored in our attic. I was missing some of the books, but I also knew that I did not need all of the hard-bounds and paperbacks that had been gathering dust for half a decade. It was time to release them to others.
But this is not the kind of work I love. It is tedious, heavy and dusty. I am allergic to dust mites, so I expected to be sick afterwards. Maybe that’s why I put it off for so long. However, here is how I turned this task into an act of worship. I put on Christmas music and praised God while I went through book-after-book. The weeding out became more enjoyable because the LORD was with me as I worked on an overdue project.
But at one point I wasn’t sure I could get through it. I was tired and there were still books everywhere. I did not know what to do with them but I didn’t want to leave the clutter, so I prayed and asked God to give me His supernatural energy and wisdom for what to keep and what to give away. It worked.
Hours after I began—when all books were either on a shelf or boxed away—I praised God again. I could not have done it without Him.
Yesterday, I attended Marcus Lamb’s funeral. Lamb was the founder of Daystar. I did not know him, but out of respect for his legacy I served as a greeter at the service, and was blessed to attend.
The final speaker at the service was a well-known preacher based in Georgia, Jentezen Franklin. He spoke about the garments Lamb left his children, one being the “garment of praise.” I thought, Will my children see me as a woman of praise, not afraid to openly worship God at all times? That is my hope, and we can all start by praising God in the most mundane of tasks like going through boxes of books, or praising him through the most difficult of times, as I witnessed yesterday at the celebration of Marcus Lambs’ life. The service was filled with praise for God who built a television empire through Lambs’ obedience.
Psalm 103:1 says, “Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name” (NLT). When and how will you praise God today?