Prayer that Opens Doors: Praise, episode 120

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast and also help and hope for your own life journey. We know that prayer is essential in our journey with our loved ones, and as we look at prayer that opens doors for the next three weeks, I believe you will want to jot down some specific helps for your prodigal pilgrimage. The key was in the lockbox. I had the code, but my normal inability to decipher how things work prevailed.

0:44 My husband quickly figured it out, but the lock on the door seemed obstinate, and it took several tries to actually unlock the door to the lovely mountain cabin we were staying in for a week. Too often, that's how it is with events and relationships and opportunities in our lives. Unlocking them is challenging. I have found, however, that prayer can be the key to unlock those seemingly stuck doors in relationships, and when you love a prodigal, there are sometimes many stuck doors.

1:25 I have found that these three specific prayers we're going to be looking at provide the access. Each one can do the job, but together they open the most stubborn situation. Today we will look at the first prayer, praise. Then next week we'll look at thanks, appropriate, since it will be right before Thanksgiving, and the following week, blessing. I think these will be perfect to prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving and the challenge we often face with our loved ones at holiday time.

2:05 We are encouraged to praise God at all times. That sounds kind of impossible, doesn't it, but that's what the Word of God says. We most often think of praise as part of praise and worship music and singing at church, which is wonderful and uplifting and freeing. It's great. But praise as a way of life is life-changing. Scripture tells us, I will praise the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord. Glorify the Lord with me.

2:45 Let us exalt his name together. Notice the all in at all times and the always in always on my lips in this verse. Seriously, I am to praise the Lord at all times. How is that possible? So consider this from Psalm 22. David is saying, But you, Lord, are holy. O you who inhabits the praises of Israel. God inhabits. He lives in our praises. And that's why he wants us to be praising him at all times, because that's like a home for him right in our midst and in our presence with us.

3:36 Our minds have far greater capacity than our immediate thinking, conversing, or acting. We always have thoughts about other things, even as we chat with someone or work on a project or reading something. In that reserved space, we can engage God in all we are and do by praising him, by acknowledging who he is and what he's like. Here are some ways that he tells us we can be praising him. We can call him by his names. Praise is basically lifting up the name of God.

4:16 I often praise him by naming his names. Whatever my need, he has a name for himself. He is Jehovah Jireh, the provider. Do you need something provided for you? He can do it. He's also Jehovah Rafa, the healer. Probably most of us have desired that he would do that. He's Jehovah Shalom. He's peace. And there are many others. He is love, he says. And I certainly need that. Gratefully, he is also full of mercy. Sometimes I require that often.

5:00 He is Jehovah Roy, the God who sees everything. He knows every single thing going on in our lives. He knows the pain. He knows the joy. He knows what's happening with our loved prodigal. He sees it all. And he is elshah died, the mighty one in every circumstances. There's nothing too hard for him, too big for him, too much for him. And so many more names. One way I can be praising him always is to lift up who he is and what he is like by speaking his names, by calling out his names to him.

5:43 That will be praising him as we go about our daily lives. And speaking of names, I've always been grateful that my parents named me Judith because I love the meaning. The meaning of Judith is praise of the Lord. So my purpose in life has become to fulfill my name, to live out my name. And therefore I praise him a lot. I praise him when I am in need. The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in him and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy and with my songs I praise him.

6:28 I praise him when I'm discouraged. Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. That's from Psalm 42. The Psalms are full of ways that we praise God. In Psalm 103, one of my very favorites, he says, I praise him for all he has done for me. The word says, praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name, praise the Lord, my soul, and don't forget all of his benefits, all that he has done for you.

7:14 I praise him because he is worthy of praise. Praise be, we read in Psalm 72, to his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. We don't have to have a praise name, however, to make praise a daily practice. Almost every day I say, Lord, may my life be praised to you, and we can each do that. Here's something else that praised us. It banishes our enemy. If you have lived with a prodigal for very long, you know there is an enemy.

7:57 Satan is intent on capturing the hearts and minds of our wanderers. Our natural tendency is to cringe in fear or to run and hide from the enemy. God's word, though, tells us to do just the opposite. He said, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Praise is our best weapon against him. He really doesn't like it when he hears us praising God, when he sees God being lifted up, glorified, and praised. So when we do just that, then Scripture tells us what happens.

8:41 He says, you, Lord, are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel, of each of us who is a child of God. God's glory and greatness are revealed as we praise him. So when we find ourselves under attack, both ourselves or our loved one, and have a sense that Satan is really after us or them, he says, praise him in these simple ways. Anytime we feel the need, he says, name his names, his attributes, his qualities, the ones I talked about before. And these, he says, he is good.

9:23 He is faithful. He is loving. He is merciful. He is also God Almighty, Jehovah Jireh. He's our shepherd. And you can probably think of many more, but when you feel under attack, start talking about what God is like and talk about these kinds of truths about him, names and qualities and the way he treats us, and that sends the evil one away. He wants not anything to do with hearing God being praised. And so you win when you do that. Here's some other ways that you can praise on a regular basis.

10:09 Any of the Psalms might provide some prayers. If you go to Psalms 95 to 100, there's praise all throughout them and just reading them lifts your spirit. You can sing praise songs. It's not what I usually do since I got skipped on the music side of things when God was making me, but I can do it when no one else is around. Sing praise songs. Here's something you might not have heard. If you go to a more liturgical church, you can read beautiful praise from the liturgical guide that you would have in your church.

10:49 And any time that you praise, it makes Satan flee. There is power in praising God. I find when I remember to praise him that my focus changes. Instead of dwelling on my worries, concerns, fears, or troubles, my mind and my heart instead remember what an amazing God and Savior and Redeemer and friend he is. And his presence in those remembrances gives me peace and hope. Praise not only puts us in the very presence of God and lifts our eyes from our problems to his ability to solve them.

11:37 It also gives us plenty of practice for heaven. There as we go about the real life God has for us then, we will truly be praising him all the time. What about you? How might praise become a daily part of your walk with God? Think through. I trust you jotted some of these ideas down. Praise that you can make praise be on your lips all the time. Often, whenever you're afraid or concerned or downcast or fearful for your loved one, let praise come to your lips and see that God will open a door, a door in your trust of him, in your relationship with him, as well as with your loved one, and in peace just for you.

12:33 God bless you.