Devotional: Praise Before My Breakthrough
What’s the process to breakthrough in your life? There are walls that surround you that need to be broken down. Sometimes these walls are family challenges. Sometimes they’re work issues or financial hardships. They could very well be persecution you’ve received on account of your faith. Whatever the challenges and whatever the circumstances, the praise that we give the risen Lord Jesus Christ must go before us. Our praise comes before our breakthrough, because our praise reminds us that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that Jesus has defeated sin, Satan and death. And it reminds us that, in Christ, the best is always ahead of us and not behind. A lifestyle of praise is therefore a defining characteristic of the Church, and each individual believer.
Questions for Meditation:
- Begin your meditation and reflection today by answering this fundamental question: why do we praise Jesus Christ?
- Where do praise and worship services take place? Just at a church building, or are they happening elsewhere (See Acts 16)? What physical space can you turn into a place of worship this week?
- How should our circumstances shape the way we praise, if at all?
- Can you identify either a testimony in your own life or one that you’ve heard through someone else when their praise and worship was the predecessor of God’s breakthrough in their life? Describe it below.
- Does the Bible prescribe that Christ-followers make a beautiful noise to the Lord, or a joyful one? Is your praise marked by joy in God? If yes, why? If not, why not?
- What does the sound of our praise tell the watching world around us (i.e. those who don’t have a relationship with Christ)?
- Close your reflection by listing five specific things you can praise and worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for this week.