Oh to have lips that "overflow with praise" for God...and to live to praise Him! That means that an occasional "thank You, Lord," nor even a daily listing of blessings for which we're grateful should be enough. Rather, our conversation should be overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to our gracious, generous Father.
With what does your tongue overflow? Words of thanksgiving...or words of complaining. Words of gratitude...or words of gossip. Words of rejoicing...or words of nitpicking. Words that benefit...or words that belittle. Words that relentlessly search for God's gifts and then thank Him...or words that simply follow along with the flow of our often sarcastic, caustic, ever-discontent culture.
If it's the latter rather than the former, then we're following the perfect recipe for irritability, fear, dissatisfaction, and ultimately despair. But if we choose--because it's always a choice--to have lips that overflow with praise, we will find anxiety, discontentment, and discouragement dissipate. Instead, they'll be replaced with deep down, soul-sustaining peace and joy.
My sweet friend, Maria, dropped off this wonderful gift at my house the other day--
I have it hanging in our kitchen as a reminder that this is how to have lips that overflow with praise! This will help us to live to praise God. Because it's so true--no matter how dark or uncertain the circumstances, there truly are always, always, always myriad reasons to thank and praise our Father. And if we choose (there's that word again) to look for reasons for thanksgiving and then to consciously thank the Lord, we will be transformed. Yeah sure, the circumstances may not change one iota, but we are changed. Dramatically changed.
I learned this most powerfully when Janie was in the ICU four years ago. The doctors and nurses were unable to awaken her from the coma, and her body struggled to battle not just the traumatic brain injury, but also fever, infection, and severe lung problems. Unconscious and unresponsive...day after day after day, while we waited and prayed, prayed and waited.
But after we'd been there about a week and a half, a middle-aged man was admitted to the room next to Janie. He, too, had suffered a brain injury, and he, too, was unconscious. Through the thin ICU walls, we could hear the same protocol we'd heard countless times with Janie. Every hour, the nurses would lower the medicine and attempt to awaken the patient. "Mr. so and so. Mr. so and so. Can you hear me?," they'd shout. "Wake up! Can you hear me?"
Day after day, every hour of every day, they'd been attempting this same thing with our daughter. "Janie, wake up! Janie, wake up! Janie, can you hear me?" But still, after ten days, nothing. Nada. To say it was hope crushing would be an understatement--every hour your hopes would rise, as you'd think, "Maybe this time!" But then nothing. No response. Yet here was this man, who after being admitted to the ICU less than 12 hours earlier, had apparently begun to respond and awaken.
I shared this at the time, but I'm still ashamed to admit that my first thought wasn't joy for this man and his family. Oh forgive me, Lord. No, my first thought was, "Why not Janie, Lord? This man's been here less than a day. She's been here nearly two weeks. Why not her?" You can probably imagine the dark, twisted paths my mind would have gone down had I continued thinking like that. I shudder to even ponder it.
But praise my gracious, forgiving, forever-faithful Lord that He stopped me in my tracks. Somehow in His mercy, the Holy Spirit immediately spoke to my heart--"Stop! Choose to find reasons to thank Me. Right now, choose to praise your Heavenly Father."
And thank the Lord, that's exactly what I did. Can I just say that even that was all by His grace? I'm so often disobedient, or at best, sloooow to obey. And thanking God was surely the last thing in the world that I felt like doing. Yet this time, by God's mercy and grace, He enabled me to obey that which He directed.
So I began to write down, in that very moment, every blessings for which I was thankful--some big, some tiny. "Thank You, Lord, for the amazing nurses and doctors...for this excellent hospital...for our incredible friends who are helping us in every way possible...for my dear brothers and sisters who are constantly with us here...for Janie's friends praying...for Courtney and the Young Life leaders...for the Starbucks downstairs...for the recovery of the other girls in the accident...
Yes, it was awfully difficult and painful at first, but slowly, slowly, not only did counting those blessings grow easier, but the deadly vise-grip of fear and bitterness on my heart began to loosen. In it's place, well, God gave a deep down peace and even the beginning of joy. I will never forget it, and the experience changed me forever. That's the power of praise and the blessing of Thanksgiving. When we thank Him--even in the hardest places--we not only please God and bring Him glory, but in the process, we experience blessing, peace, hope, and, yes, even joy.
That's a lot of words to simply agree with Maria's beautiful little hand towel that there are always, always, always reasons for thanksgiving. Might each of us, no matter our circumstances, choose to daily, even hourly, look for those gifts--those reasons for thanksgiving--and then express our gratitude with lips overflowing with praise.
Oh Father, we ask that You would enable us to live to praise You and that our lips will overflow with that praise. For in You, there's always, always, always reason for rejoicing. To God be the glory.
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