Give God His Applause!
A little boy had attended church on Sunday morning
with his parents for the first time in a while. That night he knelt to say his
prayers before going to bed. The little fella prayed, “Dear Lord, I sure had a good time at church today. I sure wish you
could have been there!”
Wow! No truer words have
ever been spoken. When we were created by God, we were created to worship Him.
The word worship is literally translated as “worth-ship.” We are to live our
lives to prove God’s worth-ship, and that He alone is worthy of our praise.
I’ve been thinking about why we give God so very little worship in our daily
lives. The Bible indicates that we should praise and worship God in all things.
This means our family should bring praise to God, our jobs should be of worship
to God, as well as our finances, words, thoughts, actions, and motivations. But
still, our lives give God so very little worship.
Last year at the end of VBS a little boy came up to me and said, “Preacher, I like coming to your church
better than granny’s church.” I said to him, “Well thank you (and called his name). Why do you like this church
better?” Very seriously, he said to me, “Because
ya’ll clap in this church. Nobody at granny’s church gives God a clap. I think He
likes it!” Wow! What a profound statement from a 1st grader! God
loves the applause of our lives. The applause of our lives is worship to our
God. Now let us admit how this is a marvelous thought to grasp. No wonder the
Psalmist says, “I will extol the LORD at
all times; his praise will always be on my lips (Ps. 34:1).” He also says
in Psalm 47:1, “Come, everyone! Clap your
hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!”
I
am afraid that we allow much of the applause of our lives that should go to God
actually come to us instead. Let’s admit it, shall we? Humility is not our
strong point most of the time. Sometimes, even while serving God, we have those
who come to us, pat us on the backs, tell us what a good job we are doing, and
turn the spotlight of praise on us. The great temptation for us is to step into
that spotlight and take for ourselves the applause that belongs only to God.
This tempts me and it probably tempts you too. We must stop living our lives as
if worshipping God does not matter. He
deserves our very best. In return, God’s Word teaches that He pours His
blessings into our lives to such a degree that we cannot contain them all (Luke
6:38 ).
Let
me challenge you to give God the applause of your life and to point the
applause of others to Him as well. All we have and all we are is a direct
result of God’s blessings. Let’s give him the applause of our lives through
giving our tithe, in prayer, and through our song. Let’s each give him applause
on our jobs, with our witness, in our families, and as we serve others.
