Five Reasons To Praise God

You know, there is nothing like looking back over your life and seeing a missed opportunity. Have you ever done that? I don’t mean like a Why didn’t I buy Microsoft opportunity, I mean a REAL OPPORTUNITY! A Kingdom opportunity.

Years ago in the fall of 1998 when I first moved to Dallas, I was living in an extended stay motel while I looked for an apartment.

I was in my first wilderness. Dad was dying of cancer. My sister was dying of Hepatitis C (also dying), My daughter was divorcing her husband. There was SO much pain all the way around.

I missed my Mom, my kids and my only grandson so horribly.

I spent every evening listening to sermons & praising God.

I was living on potted meat, ramen noodles and peanut butter. I was SOOO broke.

I remember praying one evening about going to church. I had never lived in any city before, least of all Dallas, and I had no idea how to even find a good church to go to.

We didn’t have GPS back then. Cell phones were just starting to become popular. And I can get turned around in a paper sack, yall, so I don’t just go driving around trying to find stuff. If I did, I would end up in like CANADA. Because I don’t have a sense of direction.

So I prayed about going to church and asked God to make a way. In the meantime, I figured I would just content myself with watching church on TV.

The next day I was in a nearby Laundromat doing my laundry and I started talking to this really nice lady who was also a Christian. She invited me to her church. She was a delight. Her name was Noni.

But her church was in South Dallas. We were in North Dallas. So she offered to come pick me up and take me.

So I started going with her to T.D. Jakes’ church, The Potter’s House, in Dallas. That was when they were in the old building. I think it held like 6K or 8K people, I can’t remember. They built a new one to hold 20K because he was preaching FOUR services every Sunday morning. I do not know HOW he did that. Preaching under the anointing drains you, because you put everything you have into it.

Anyway, so I started riding with my friend every Sunday and God bless her because I was eating lunch on $5 a week back then and I did not even have money to help pay for gas.

This was the same lady that noticed I did not have a coat and offered me the beautiful red coat that winter. I was SOO cold, and I was SOO overjoyed to get that beautiful coat!!! I wish I knew where she was, I would love to thank her.

It was common to see the miraculous at The Potter’s House. One time we were waiting for the service to start. No one was on the stage. And a Spirit of Giving hit all of us. There were THOUSANDS of us there, yall, and all of us got up and started going to the altar steps and laying our tithes & offerings before God. There was NO music, there was NO preacher on stage, there was NO ONE on the platform!! I did it too, the feeling hit us like a wave and you know the Holy Ghost when He’s there!!

Later I saw T.D. Jakes talk about that Sunday on television – this was YEARS later. He had been back in his office or some place PRAYING. And I wish I could remember what he said he was praying about, but God told him go look at the congregation. He looked out and saw all of us giving. And God told him it was His doing.

The congregants at The Potter’s House praise dance at the end of every worship service. I never was any good at keeping up with them because I only ever knew how to dance to music.

So I began to notice every Sunday morning, there was this elderly lady who would walk back and forth in front of the altar and praise God before every service started – for like 30 minutes! And I mean praise Loudly. And you could tell it was REAL PRAISE – the kind that wells up in you when God just amazes you. And I became curious. I asked Noni about her but she had no idea why the woman did that.

One Sunday, I just had to know why. So I went down in front of the altar and I said, I KNOW THERE HAS TO BE A STORY BEHIND PRAISE LIKE THAT! Please tell me the story!!