Salvation Summaries

Last night, I determined to set aside the first 30 – 60 minutes of my day (after making some coffee of course) to praise, worship and pray to God. Why? Because I want to know Him better; I need to know Him better.

I continue to believe that we Christians are missing out on really knowing Him and who He is – and the peace and joy that can come from this – because we simply don’t devote enough time to and for Him. We don’t take the time to praise and worship and pray to Him.

Why? I hate to say it, but it’s because we are lazy. We’ve adopted too much of what the world does, and not enough of what He wants. We focus too much on our jobs and our sports events and our social media and our physical bodies, and not enough on Him.

So, the first thing I did this morning, when I approached God in prayer to praise Him, was to confess. What did I confess? That I never praise Him! Yes, I pray to Him, and seek Him, and I go to church where we sing praise songs (though I don’t always sing along, but that’s a topic for another day), but I don’t praise Him. Shame on me! And shame on you if you don’t either.

After confessing my sin to Him, I used my BibleWorks software to look up verses with the word “praise” (praise is used 340 times in the Bible) and randomly selected a few dozen verses, and then after reading them narrowed the list to the ones below. I then simply read these out loud, and looked up a few key terms to make sure I fully understood them. I encourage you to read through the verses at the end of this post, but to save you time, I summarized below some of the things these verses say that we should praise God for.

Praise Summary

Praise God for His faithfulness. God never lies. He is trustworthy and reliable. God keeps His promises and is faithful to His word. I really like this, for we can claim His promises in Scripture and know that God will always fulfill them (one of my favorites is 1 John 5:13). God is someone we can trust.

Praise God for His righteousness. God is just and fair in how He treats His creation. He is morally upright and perfect. God is able to declare believers as righteous before Him when they put their faith in Jesus as their savior.

Praise God for His compassion and comfort. He can comfort us in our troubles so that we can comfort others (2 Cor 1:3-4).

Praise God for His word. The Bible is such an amazing book, and you may not realize how truly wonderful it is until you read other religious books (Koran, Book of Mormon, the Buddhist “bible”) and see how they simply can’t compare to what God wrote. We can ready and study God’s word all of our life and never learn all of what it has to offer. The parables, the cadence of certain verses that help us memorize them, the prophecies that have been fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled, and the endless insights we can gain from studying His word all stand out to me. Blessed are those who read/hear God’s word and obey it (Luke 11:28).

Praise God that He hears our prayers and our cries for help. Although God may seem distant and uninterested in what we do, that’s not true. He hears us when we pray to Him. I like it that God knows all about my struggles and concerns and anxieties and problems. He hears everything that I tell Him.

Praise God that He has saved you. Of all of the things we can praise God for, this may rank the highest on my list. This is the ultimate act of grace and love that God can show to His creation. Jesus, our perfect Savior, died so that we may live. I simply can’t fathom what it will be like when we Christians meet Him in heaven.

So, fellow believer, I encourage you to praise God if you have not (like me). You might consider praising Him for one thing each day (there are six above, but more below), which is what my plan is. May God bless you for your desire to know Him better.

Praise Verses

• Psalm 33:2-5   ² Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.  ³ Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.  ⁴ For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.  ⁵ The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
• Psalm 66:17-20   ¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.  ¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;  ¹⁹ but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.  ²⁰ Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
• Psalm 100:4-5   ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
• Psalm 111:1-10  ^NIV Psalm 111:1 Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.  ² Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.  ³ Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.  ⁴ He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.  ⁵ He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.  ⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations.  ⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.  ⁸ They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness.  ⁹ He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever– holy and awesome is his name.  ¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4   ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
• Ephesians 1:3   ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:3-4   ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade– kept in heaven for you,
• 1 Peter 4:16   ¹⁶ However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.