Great Is The Lord, and Greatly To Be Praised (replay)

Great Is The Lord, and Greatly to Be Praised

Psalm 145:1-3 “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.  Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.”

This is a great verse.  I think if you know me at all by now, you know that I love to praise the Lord.  I think He is truly amazing and I think it is so important to tell Him that.  Our Lord does so much for us every day.  He gives us so much mercy and so much grace.  He forgives us again and again, even though we don’t really deserve it.  His love is unconditional and unending.  How many people can you say that about?  He performs miracles for us, just to make us happy.  He doesn’t need anything from us in return.  Again, how many people can you say that about?  How many people do you know that will do things for you without expecting anything in return?  I hope you do know at least one, because there are people out there like that, but they are certainly not the majority.  

This is why I love praising the Lord so much.  There is little that we can give God to repay Him.  There is nothing He needs from us.  He is complete and totally perfect just as He is.  Even though He doesn’t need anything from us, He does like when we praise Him.  Praising the Lord is something that costs us nothing but our time and is easy to do.  Once you start to incorporate praising the Lord into your daily routine, you will wonder why you weren’t always doing it.  It feels so good to say thank you to God for all that He does for us.  The more you praise Him the more you realize how amazing He truly is.  

When I attended a Life in the Spirit seminar, they gave us praise sheets so that we could participate in the praise part of the meetings.  You do not need a praise sheet to praise the Lord.  There is no right or wrong way to do it.  However, if you are new to praising the Lord, it may feel intimidating, especially if you are in a room full of people that have been doing it for a long time.  If this is your first time intentionally praising the Lord it may feel strange.  That’s normal, just keep doing it.  If you are like me and most people who have never really spent time praising the Lord before, you are not really sure what to say.  I understand this.  I had no idea what to say at first and even though I have been doing it at least every Thursday for the last 3 years or so, I still use the praise sheet.  I like the things that are written on the sheet.  I do praise on my own, with my own words at home sometimes, but I really like using the sheet.  

Here are some of the things that are on the praise sheet I was given.

Praise you our Lord and our God, Praise your holy name, we rejoice in your presence oh Lord, Jesus you are my strength, Jesus you are my rock, Jesus you are my fortress, Jesus you are my deliver, Jesus you are my refuge, Jesus you are my shield, Jesus you are my strong hold, Jesus you are my salvation, Jesus you are my healer, Jesus you are my teacher, Jesus you are my savior, Jesus you are my advocate, Jesus you are the great amen, Jesus you are the author of life, Jesus you are the beginning in the end, Jesus you are the blessed and only ruler, Jesus you are the breath of life, Jesus you are the captain of salvation, Jesus you are the good shepherd, Jesus you are the healer, Jesus you are hope and glory.

You are the Messiah, you are the fountain of life, you are the vine keep us attached to you Lord, you are the holy one of Israel, you are the Christ, the power and wisdom of God, you are the Lamb who was slain you are the word made flesh, you are the holy one who sits up on the throne, you are the living word, you are emmanuel, you are the son of God, you set my feet are dancing, you are truth, you are loved, you are power, you are wisdom, you are the faithful one, you are our redeemer, you are the great “I AM”  The list goes on, but those are several examples of the kinds of things you would find on a praise sheet.  

There is a great little book called “Opening The Gates of Praise” by Father John M. Capuci.  The reason I say little book is because it is just 38 pages long.  However, in this book Father talks about five things. First, why we praise.  Second, what are our obstacles to praise.  Third, ways to praise.  Fourth, how to develop a spirit of praise.  Fifth, He takes you through the steps so you can write out your own string of praise.  This was a great book for explaining praise.  

In this book Father has 10 great reasons why we should praise God.  I am not going to read them all to you as it is not my book, it is his.  I will list a few that you may find surprising.  One that I didn’t know is that praise breaks down the walls that are barriers to God’s grace.  Father Capuci says, “When we praise, the walls of arrogance, self-hatred and low self-esteem begin to be broken down.  God begins the healing process in us as we go before Him, praising His most awesome power!” Another reason we should praise God is because praise allows us the freedom to be ourselves before God and the community.  Father Capuci says, “When we can praise God for an extended time, on a regular basis, areas of being overly concerned with how people will look at us begin to be healed.  When a person can praise God out loud, in the midst of the community, we can be assured that healing of self-image is taking place.  The last reason I will touch on is because praise breaks down negativity in our lives.  Who couldn’t use a little less of that right now.  There is so much negativity every where we look.  If praise can break that down I say it is worth it.  Father Capuci says, “There is no such thing as a negative personality.  Instead, many people struggle with the temptation to fall into negativity.  What happens is this: it becomes increasingly difficult to see God’s goodness and action in our lives or even around us.  So, we begin to develop a spirit of negativity.  Praise binds the spirit of negativity, setting us free from its hold.  The more we praise the Lord we will see the effects of negativity loose its grasp and we will move toward the power of the Holy Spirit.  

I don’t want to relay everything in this book to you as it is not my information to share.  I would highly recommend you get a copy of this book if you can.  If you would like a copy, I will put the info from the back of the book in the show notes.  I do want to go over quickly the four different types of praise that Father Capuci talks about.  First, Praise God for being God, an example of this type of praise would be the phrases I mentioned earlier from the praise sheets.  The second type of praise is praise God for your history, for example, your faith, family, being born, you faculties, and your life.  The third type of praise is praise God for your present, your here and now.  What is God doing right now in your life?  Did He help you find your keys, did you give you a nice sunny day, a green light, what can you praise God for right now in the moment? The fourth type of praise is praise God for what the Spirit is doing right now, for instance, healing a headache, shoulder is heated, outpouring of the Spirit, Receiving new gifts, or perhaps healing your self-image.  Is there anything the Spirit is doing within you right now that you can praise.  Father Capuci talks about how if you string these four categories together then you have a “string of praise.”  He encourages us each to sit down and write down at least 5 things in each category and then start to use this list to praise God more often.  If you would like the praise sheets that I was talking about early just send me an email at [email protected] and I will send you a copy. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention my favorite way to praise, which is to listen to praise and worship music.  If you are listening to this podcast and you have an smart phone or a computer I recommend you go to an app or website called spotify.  It is free to make an account and you can listen to all the Christian music you want for free.  It is a great way to try out a bunch of different artists and see who you like.  You could do the same thing on youtube if you like that better.  Listening to praise music can lift your spirits instantly.  There is a playlist on Spotify that was created by my mentor called “Big Life Mornings” and it is a great compilation of upbeat Christian songs.  I have discovered so many new great songs.  Maybe give it a try?  What have you got to lose?

Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we want to praise you, please show us how.  Please put this upon our hearts and if we are not already praising you help us to start.  Help us to want to start.  Give us the courage to praise you silently and also in out loud.  Help us to push through the feelings of awkwardness until we get comfortable praising you Lord.  You are so amazing, you do so much for us and expect nothing in return.  Help us to do this for you with no expectations.  Lord, we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Today is day 100 of that journey and I am so excited to get to share that with you.  Thank you for continuing to show up and listen.  Thank you for all of you that have given me your feedback, I really appreciate it.  If you are able to go to the rate this podcast, that would be great to help others see it more.  Also, if you have a friend or loved one you could share it with, that would be great too.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow, Have a blessed day!

To order Fr. John Capuci's book please send payment to 

Rev. John M. Capuci

C/O H. O. M. Books

108 Aberdeen Stree

Lowell, Massachusetts  01850

**This is the info in the back of the book, however, I cannot be sure this is still where you would still order them.  It might be good to send an email to Father Capuci at his new parish and just check with him.  Here is the email for his  parish.  [email protected]

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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