10 Apr Breathing Room – Day 21

Posted at 13:32h in Breathing Room, Making The Most of Now, Suffering and Trials by

Psalm 145:21 (NLT)

I will praise the Lord,
    and may everyone on earth bless his holy name
    forever and ever.

It’s fitting as we come to the end of our 21 Days of Psalm 145, in the Breathing Room with Jesus, that David ends his song of praise the way he began: declaring the praises of the Lord; blessing his name forever and ever. Praising God was a way of life for David. I pray it has now become your way of life, too.

Praising God is what we, in Christ, will do forever and ever. And forever starts now. So let’s keep going—cultivating a lifelong *lifestyle* of praising God. The more we get to know God, the longer we walk with him, finding him to be faithful and true to all that he is and all that he says, the more our lives will be filled with endless praise and blessing to our Great God and King.

The word bless is an interesting Greek word: eulogeo. It means “to speak well of with praise and thanksgiving.” It’s where we get our English word eulogy or eulogize; it’s what we do at funerals. I’ve always thought it weird to heap our highest praises on the dead, when they can’t hear a single word we’re saying about them. Why don’t we change that now and start eulogizing the living? Just a thought.

Bless also means to “kneel; to praise, adore.” In Oriental culture one would bow down, blowing kisses to the one to be praised.

All this to say, God alone is worthy of our highest praise, our continual, life-long praise and blessing that should bring us to our knees in humble adoration. Our God, who is very much alive, loves to hear his children bless him, calling out his name with highest praise. He’s drawn to our praise and “inhabits the praises of his people” (Psalm 22:3). When we praise God, He seats himself right in the middle of our lives, listening. The Japanese translation of Ps. 22:3 is: “When you praise God He brings a big chair and sits there.” I absolutely love that word picture!

So, as you continue in The Breathing Room (the space you make and the time you take to meet with Jesus daily), I hope that beautiful picture of God sitting with you in his big chair stays in your mind.

Remember: before you pick up your phone…have some precious face-time with Jesus at the start of your day, for the rest of your life.

I love y’all!

xo P♥️

For more about The Breathing Room, click here to listen to Season 1, Episode 4 of the #LifeOnLife podcast.