Daily devotion – The Highest Praise
There are times when emotion gets in the way of right thinking. God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah to give a wise counsel when this occurs. He said, Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
King Solomon warned us as well with these words – Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.
But there is another side of this story as well. God has given us the gift of having emotions. Joy, sadness, laughter, melancholy, excitement, fear, exhilaration, adulation, heartache and love just to name a few.
God has made each of us different and unique. But I must add, there are times when my emotions are so strong and vibrant that I sometimes wonder if part of the reason we will need a new body for Heaven is so our emotions can have no restraint….in matters such as our praise of God, our voices singing to their maximum capacity, our hearts exploding with seismic movements resonating the love we have for God in our hearts.
King Solomon wrote a beautiful piece of Scripture under the influence and leading of the Holy Spirit –
Ecclesiates 3:1 To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born,
And a time to die; A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
Let us enjoy the emotions that God gives us to praise our loving Father in Heaven each day.
Let our hearts be filled with thanksgiving that they will burst unless we worship Him with all our being.
Let us make sure that we aim our emotions toward Heaven at all times and let us turn them loose in the manner that God has given them – always to His glory, always to His honour, Amen!