The one where it truly is a sacrifice of praise

In yesterday's message at Victory Christian Fellowship Galleria (where my dear friend Ariel goes), Pastor Ferdie talked about praise. It's amazing how I could've led the worship at my local church for six years and not truly gotten into the mindset of praise - that's when it dawned on me how much of a doctrine idiot I am, and how far I have to go to even come remotely close to a good relationship with Jesus.

Be that as it may, two of the three points he shared really hit home: 1) Focus of Heart and 2) Frame of Mind. In praise, we need to focus on the important - WORSHIP OF HIM! and devote our wholehearted attention to that.

Wow.

Then he talked about sacrifice of praise - that in the midst of a really terrible day, that we can still find it within ourselves to praise Him. That just blew me away. It's not enough to know it - our knowledge of the Book of Job can attest to that - but it's to LIVE it.

That's what LIVINGtheLIFE is all about. It was like a ton of bricks, flat on my head. Ouchies.

Today, I promised God to try and be more grateful. It hasn't been easy. We have work today (our bosses didn't accept the national holiday), and after parking my car this morning, my pants button popped (not from tightness of waist but weakness of thread, believe me). Then, during lunch, I took my car out to save money (remember this scheme?) only to find that it's a flat rate because of the holiday, and I'm actually going to end up paying twice as much today.

Drowned my sorrows in a double cheeseburger. Not healthy, and not the right thing to do. From all accounts, this day is shot - but I will still try to praise.

Because Jesus can console better than McFries.

My Bible reading this morning (continued from 1 John 1) talked about Jesus being my bridge, and through Him, I am forgiven, so that's encouraging. Then, I read Joshua during lunch and found that he was superblessed by God just by being faithful. So I will continue to endeavor to be.

Have a good week, everyone!