Praise The Lord For Your Healing Series

May 10, 2007

"Praise the Lord for your Healing"

Psalm 33:1-22

"Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely (fitting) for the upright." Psalm 33:1

INTRODUCTION: The part that praise plays in receiving healing is often overlooked. People are prayed for, and they walk away going about their life as usual. Thanking and praising the Lord for healingbefore the symptoms go away is beneficialinmore than one way. Why? When pain and sickness drain us of all energy and hope, we easily become discouraged and wonder if God has forgotten about us, if He hears our prayers and sees our situation at all. This is the perfect atmosphere for doubt and depression to thrive. Praise can help to create an atmosphere and environment in which God can work in our behalf.

Today I want to point out some of the benefits of praise and thanksgiving in relationship to our healing. Here are three things that are significant when you need healing, and they show how praise aids in

the overall healing process.

1. Lifts Spirits: Often a sick person is discouraged and does not feel like praising the Lord. The farthest thing from a person’s mind may be to say, "Lord, I thank you and praise you for healing me." More often than not it is the opposite. "Lord, I’m in pain! Hurry up and do something!"

Scripture recognizes our human tendencies to neglect praising God and teaches us what to do when we don’t feel like it. Many times our praise has to be offered as a sacrifice without any feelings of joy or

exuberance. Hebrews 13:15 says, "let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God." A sacrifice is something that may take some effort to do because it is foreign to us. Speaking out words of praise may seem hollow and dry. It may be like climbing a mountain. It is extremely difficult and is all uphill. It is offered, though, as a sacrifice. You may not feel a thing--no enthusiasm, no sense of worship. It is more of a thing you do out of obedience. You choose to offer the sacrifice of praise and all the time may feel awkward and foolish doing it. You may try your best to

do what you think God wants you to do, but you just don’t know quite what you are supposed to be doing.

James 1:5 says, "if you lack wisdom ask of God who gives liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given." He doesn’t make us look foolish for asking.

STORY: A little boy was in a relative’s wedding. As he was coming down the aisle he would take two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd (alternating between bride’s side and groom’s side). While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar...so it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR all the way down the aisle.

As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the pulpit. The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit. When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, "I was being the Ring Bear!"

The little boy thought he was doing what was expected of him, but he was totally off track.

We need to learn how to praise the Lord and thank him for our healing. We may not know how to do it. We may start out in a very primitive way--as a sacrifice. That’s OK. We may have to learn to

change our way of doing things. That’s OK too. Do it anyway. Do it every day. What do I say? "Thank you Lord for healing me." "Thank you Lord for taking the pain away." Say whatever is appropriate for your

need.

Praising the Lord will cause a person to experience a new sense of encouragement where the spirit is lifted.

David said in Psalm 3:3, "But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory and the lifter up of mine head."

You won’t feel as depressed and discouraged. Depression will more than likely begin to lift. Why? Because you are bringing the presence of the Lord into your situation. He is the "lifter of your head." You’re not beat down anymore. Psalm 22:3 tells us that the Lord "inhabits the praises of His people." You are bringing the Lord into your situation--into your pain, into your problems. When you do that

you’re not alone anymore. David pulled himself out of discouraging times simply through thanking and praising the Lord. Intertwined with our

praise is wholeness, healing, health, deliverance, salvation. How do you know this? God is the giver of all this. You have just brought Him into