Devotional

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

 

Revelation 5:13 (NIV)

And the glory forever.  Amen

We close our sermon series titled Lord, Teach Us to Pray this week and it is my joy to share a few thoughts about the doxology portion of the Lord’s Prayer. The term doxology means to ascribe praise to God. When I think about this idea of ascribing praise to God I contemplate three things: Who should ascribe praise, why should we ascribe praise and how should we ascribe praise? So, let’s briefly explore these three ideas together.

A Scripture passage that comes to my mind as I consider who should ascribe praise to God is from the Book of Revelation and it articulates that every creature everywhere gives praise to God. I love that sense that every living thing does this. Imagine what that would look like or even sound like if everyone together lifted up praise.

Why should we ascribe praise to God? After all, there are times that we simply do not feel like praising God. My answer to this question points back to Scripture in that praising God is commanded of us, and God is worthy of our praise. I believe when we praise God, it is a form of prayer in which God acts on our behalf. In other words, praise to God is relational. By praising, we are acknowledging the presence of God which in turn readies our hearts and minds to converse with God.

My favorite question is how we are to ascribe praise to God. The obvious answer for me is to sing our praise! The hymns and songs that ascribe praise to God are numerous and we sing many of those songs together every Sunday in worship. The Book of Psalms declares praising to be dancing, singing, loud clashing cymbals, and trumpets, to name a few. Praise to God can be done anywhere, at any time and in a variety of ways. Any moment, in which we are acknowledging God as ruler over all things, we are ascribing praise to God.  Although I am tempted to leave a hymn of praise on this page as I close this writing, my heart leans in another direction. I share a list of attributes to describe God that have assisted me in all my circumstances to praise God, even at times when I may feel resistant to do so. I pray this list offers you plenty of reasons to give praise to God in every season.

Attributes of God

Prayer

Holy God; May we always find reason to praise You so that those around us who may not be convinced will be compelled to do the same. Amen.

Written by Tianna Durbin. Tianna leads in music ministry and worship of Arcola Church. She also attends graduate school at Wesley Theological Seminary and looks forward to finishing her Master’s Degree in the near future. Besides work and school, she and her husband Chris stay busy keeping up with their two teenagers.