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As children we were constantly told that certain foods that we didn’t like were good for us. Our mothers would say, “Eat your vegetables!”
As a child I never questioned my mother, but later I wondered what did vegetables have that, say, Snickers bars did not. I have since learned that certain foods help our body while others tear it down and are toxic.
We are not always aware that our bodies are constantly under siege by infection and disease. Daily dramas and battles play out in the deep places of our cells as the life-giving nutrients we eat give our bodies the edge over sickness’ ceaseless onslaught. We don’t think we are adding to our arsenal when we eat broccoli, but we are all the same.
This is also the case spiritually. Whether we realize it or not, a constant battle rages against our faith and our Christian walk. Countless lies assemble around us, designing to sap the life out of us and conquer us as believers.
Situations cry out to us saying they are the most important things in the world, and need constant and immediate attention: school projects, problems with family or friends, or even household chores.
We have two mighty weapons against such attacks–Praise and Worship. Just like the effectiveness of certain foods, we are not always aware of the power of praise and worship. God in his generosity has made it such that, when we worship Him with all that is in us, even in our giving all to Him, He gives to us. He delivers us from our enemies.
When we praise the Lord, we proclaim that Jesus, not the paper that is due tomorrow, or the family crisis, or even our personal future, but Jesus is the most important of all.
When we worship Him, we acknowledge that He is the most powerful of all, more powerful than any crisis, problem relationship, sin or bondage.
When we adore Him, we get our proper perspective, and at once, the Enemy’s lies are neutralized, because we choose to stand on God’s truth.
We don’t normally see the adversary flee or see his constructs collapse as we praise the Lord, but this happens all the same. God’s word says so.
“Praise the Lord.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the saints.
For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with salvation.
May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them.
This is the glory of all his saints.
Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 149)
As his people we are privileged to praise God as a company and privately , so as to “carry out the sentence written against” the Enemy.
Now what would happen if, in our criminal courts, offenders were sentenced to prison, but no one took the responsibility to carry out that sentence? The sentenced criminal would simply walk out of the courtroom free to carry on in wickedness and cruelty. His sentence makes little difference if no one carries it out against him.
Because Jesus died on the cross, a death sentence has been handed down to the Enemy in our lives. We have the right and honor to carry out this sentence against him, to bind him with fetters and shackles of iron, to inflict vengeance on him and his cohorts. We take our wonderful part as we regularly praise and worship the Lord.
We don’t praise the Lord simply to set the enemy back and take hold of the victory Christ won for us. No, we worship Him because He is worthy and it is right and good for us to do so. As a direct benefit and consequence, we find deliverance from the foe.
This week you may find yourself hemmed in by some lie, or pressed by a weighty something you are “being told’ is important above all else. At those moments, praise the Lord. Say aloud who He is and what He has done for us all. Proclaim Him as the most important and the most powerful. Rejoice in Him and even sing and dance.
You may not immediately feel the results of praise and worship carried out in faith, but you can be assured according to God’s word that you are doing damage to the Enemy’s devices and schemes set against you.
You will be doing something that is “good for you,” good for your soul and your life in Christ.
Peter Toscano
© 1995 The Yale Standard Committee