One of my favorite worship songs came on the radio this afternoon, and I began to thank and praise God for how beautiful the day was, and just for how awesome God is. Then I began to really think about praise. God loves it when we tell Him how awesome He is, how much we love Him. The Bible says He delights in our praises. But is that all there is to it?
Imagine a girl having a boyfriend who told her all the time that he loved her and how special she was. That would be nice, but what if he never bought her flowers, rarely took her out on a date, and acted like he didn’t want to talk to her? Would she believe then that he really loved her, or would the phrase seem empty?
I believe that so often we end up doing this to God. We tell Him how much we love Him, and how amazing He is, but we fail to live out our praise. We tell Him, “I love you,” but has it become an empty phrase we say to make it seem like we still have a good relationship with Him?
Can we really say we love God when we don’t keep His commandments?
Can we really praise God with our lips when we aren’t living a life of praise?
True praise comes from living a life of praise to God. God loves praise. He loves the adoration we give Him when we say how much we love Him, but what makes Him even happier is when we have the lifestyle to back it up. His desire is that when we say we love Him, we should also show Him that we love Him.
The next time you begin to praise God when your favorite worship song comes on the radio, or when you’re having a great day, or when you’re in church, ask yourself, “Is my life also giving praise to God?” If it’s not, your praise is empty. Don’t let your praise be empty.
John 3:16 says that God loved the world so much that He demonstrated His love by giving His only Son to die for us, His only Son that He loved. He’s already shown us how deep His love is for us, that He gave what was most precious to Him. How are we demonstrating our love for Him?
