I received an email from a friend yesterday. He sends me little snippets of this-and-that each day. I laugh at some, shake my head at others and then some, I am pressed to ponder a bit. Yesterday's was a quote by Warren Wiersbe:
"When there is peace in the heart, there will be praise on the lips."
Sounds sweet, huh? I thought so, too--at the first read. Then I looked at it again and recalled a time when the phrase was reversed for me. When there is praise on the lips, there is peace in the heart. There was a time so dark and full of sorrow and blackness I thought any second I was going to die. In fact as much as I feared it, I wanted it. I saw no light in the abyss. No comfort to come from mourning. No filling to come from hungering and thirsting. No strength to come from weakness. No hand amid the waves of pain.
Wiersbe says, when there is peace, there is praise. I don't know if that is always true.
You see, my heart is at peace quite often without an utterance of praise or a thought of adoration toward my Maker. But when I am troubled, when my heart is broken, when heartache seems to squeeze the life right out of my soul, it's then that peace eludes me.
I have found when I take time to exalt the Lord, to sing a chorus of praise: "I exalt You. I exalt You. I exalt You, Oh, Lord;" it is then my heart is stilled. It's then my heart relaxes and my weakness turns to strength. It's then the darkest night becomes day. Most certainly when a heart is at peace it can praise the Lord for His presence. But do we? always?
When a person has a troubled heart, praise on his lips will create the peace his heart cannot produce on its own. It transforms the heart flooded with itself. God is the keeper of the secret longings and needs of our hearts. We can praise Him for the hope we have in Him and then our hearts will give Him room to sit enthroned each moment of our day.
"But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted Thee and Thou didst deliver them." Psalm 22:3-4 KJV
If you have a troubled weary heart today, try singing Jesus Loves Me till you feel He does and know He is your refuge and stay. I am praying for you, too. May His peace be the praise you offer to others who find themselves torn and broken today. selahV
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