A little bit of heaven on earth~~~
How does that sound to you?
Don’t we always think about how when we are in heaven we will be with the Lord forever and always praising Him?
How about if we tried doing more of that very thing, praising Him, while on this earth?
Have you ever thought about and zeroed in on the fact that actually ALL of creation was really created by God and meant to continually give praise and glory to Him?
Shouldn’t everything really give glory to its Creator?
Do you strive to live this way daily? Even though bad things may happen or things might not go according to your plans? Yes, it is important to continually be praising the Lord through ALL that happens on this earth.
Photo credit by Sapphire Dream Photography under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Take a few minutes to read, reread, and reflect on these words:
You (God) love everything that exists; you do not despise anything that you have made. If you had not liked it, you would not have made it in the first place.
How could anything last, if you did not want it to? How could it endure, if you had not created it?
You have allowed it all to exist, O Lord, because it is yours, and you love every living thing.
Aren’t those words so POWERFUL?
Look around you. What do you see?
The sky, flowers, animals, insects, the waters, stars, leaves that change colors and fall off the trees…and the list goes on and on.
So, if we agree the Lord God made everything we see, we KNOW it remains because HE wills it.
Why do the stars appear every night? Why do the leaves turn colors in the fall and fall down to the earth? Why do the geese fly south and the clouds bring snow in the winter?
All because the Lord wills it, and it has been called forth by Him!
All these creations are giving praise to their Creator by fulfilling the Lord’s purpose for them.
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Now turn your thoughts to people, God’s greatest creation, made in His image. I like this story from Luke 19:5-6 & 9-10…..highlighting Zacchaeus’ readiness to give praise to Jesus.
When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I MUST stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. (NIV)
Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house,
because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (NIV)
God gave us humans free will; something that all other creation does not have. Jesus waits patiently for all His children to come to the point where they praise Him in their life.
It is interesting to see that Jesus had this urgency and foresight that the time was right for Zacchaeus to praise his creator because He knew Zacchaeus was ready too!
Zacchaeus, hearing that Jesus was passing by, climbed a sycamore tree because he was too short to see Jesus admist the crowds of people. Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ heart and actively sought Zacchaeus to call him out and stay at his house that evening. What a great visit that must have been! From that point on, Zacchaeus served the Lord with joy and praise.
Photo credit by Martin LaBar under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 2.0)
As humans, don’t we find it harder to praise the Lord during the difficult times, especially when suffering with things of this world like sickness and death?
I challenge you this week to continually praise and give glory to God. Yes, even during the difficult times. God is our sovereign Lord and ALL of creation was made to give Him praise and glory!
You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. –Nehemiah 9:6 (NIV)
