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
your situation. He is inhabiting or living in your praise. He’s there with you. Prayer and praise precedes deliverance. David in Psalm 34:4
says, "I sought the Lord and he heard me AND delivered me from all my fears."
Let us lift our heads
Let us expect the answer to come
2. Reinforces our Faith: When we praise the Lord it reinforces our faith. Our faith grows and increases. Our head is lifted up, we see God in our situation now, we see hope now for what we previously thought impossible. Why wouldn’t our faith be strengthened in such an atmosphere? Our faith grows and increases as we focus on the Lord and hear His Word. Our doubts are crowded out. Lester Sumrall said, "Feed your faith and starve your doubts." Speaking out through praise and thanksgiving causes our faith to rise and become bigger than our doubts.
If we say, "Thank you Lord for healing me," we are expecting this thappen. We expect it because our faith is focused on the answer rather than on the problem. By saying, "The Lord is healing me. Thank you Lord, I am coming into complete healing and into complete health" will help you to begin making plans for the answer. What would you do differently if you were in complete health? Begin making plans. Keep
praising the Lord. Faith can lift you above the problem so that you can be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
STORY: One man was told that he was going to die. He thought,"well if I’m going to die anyway, I am going to take a trip around the world. What do I have to lose."
He made plans and went on the trip. When he came back, he still wasn’t that much worse so he picked out another place. He traveled some more and had a great time. He went back to the doctor who said, "You seem a little better." As the months went by, he got well. His situation began to change.
STORY: My uncle was in his 80’s and the doctors said he had cancer. He had an old Ford car, and the floor boards were rusting through. Everytime his wife rode in the car she said her feet would go
through the holes in the floor boards. But he thought he was going to die anyway and he didn’t want to spend money on a new car. He was in and out of the hospital but he would always pull through. After one serious
bout with sickness, he put a new roof on his garage. Finally the car got so bad he was afraid the bottom was going to fall out of it as he was driving it. So he says, "Well, if I’m not going to die, I guess I’m
going to have to go and buy a new car. He ended up with a brand new Fordand drove it for a long time after that.
Many of our problems are not the end for us.
STORY: One Christian man would get sick, and he would say, "Oh, I’m on the way out." Then he would get his faith working and he would pull out of it again and again. He lived past 95.
Let us be people of strong faith knowing that as we praise God for who He is and for what He can do, He will see us through a lot of things that people say are impossible. Things don’t have to be like they
seem.
STORY: There was a woman who the Lord healed time after time. She had a stroke and people would think she was dying. Then she wouldpull through and go back to teaching her class and singing in church.
Then something else would hit her. She would be healed. When she was in the hospital two or three years ago, one woman aid, "Oh, I’m just praying
that the Lord will take her home. She can’t get well." But she recovered and went back to teaching her class and singing solos." She always praised the Lord for yet another healing. He wasn’t finished with her yet.
Whether we recover every time or go home to be with the Lord, it is still good to live our lives as people who have strong faith who praise the Lord and make it our lifestyle. To incorporate praise and
thanksgiving into our total lifestyle is more than just standing and praise God in a church service for a long period of time and then
forgetting about it the rest of the week. David said in Psalm 147, "for praise is good, pleasant and comely (fitting)." He said, "I will praise the Lord with my whole heart." Psalm 111:1. He also said "praise is
continually in my mouth." Not just once in awhile. When praise becomes integrated into our total life, I believe we will become strong faith-filled Christians. We will not be wavering back and forth between faith and doubt when we are prayed for wondering if it is God’s will to heal us or not. Praise reinforces our faith.
3. Bringing Things into the Realm of Reality: There are a lot of things we can bring into existence by speaking them out. Abraham was
an example of this. It is not a superficial "Name it and Claim it" thing. Abraham praised the Lord when he did not have the evidence. He believed God anyway. We need to praise God until we see the answer or
are shown differently. Romans 4:21 tells us "and [Abraham] being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was also able to perform" gave
glory to God. Begin to say what God says through praising the Lord. Begin to see the answers some into the realm of reality for you as youdevelop your daily time of praise and thanksgiving, not only because of
what He is giving you but just because He is God and worthy of our praise.
You might say, "I can’t see why I need to say anything. Why do I need to do all of this? "
The things we say and do are signs of our obedience, faith, and action. That’s why many times Jesus asked a person who came for healing to do certain things. It was a step of faith and of obedience. Sometimes TV evangelists will ask you to touch your TV screen. You say, "That’s stupid. I’m not going to do that." There’s no magic in touching
the TV screen, but it’s a sign of willingness and faith and obedience. What’s so hard about that? Sometimes you are asked to stand, to raise
your hands, to come and kneel. You say, "I’m not going to do that! That’s not necessary. Nobody is going to tell me what to do!"
A scripture in Isaiah 1:19 says, "the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land." Sometimes the little things we do or don’t do
brings about results we like or don’t like. What will happen if we are willing to praise the Lord? What will happen if we are more obedient to
what He wants us to do?
Praise and thanksgiving:
Put us in God’s will I Thess. 5:17, 18
Glorifies God
Psalm 50:23
Is good
Psalm 147
Is requested
Psalm 150:6
How do we bring things into the realm of reality for us? We praise the Lord for doing it. We speak to our mountains and command them to leave. We praise Him and thank Him for doing it. We bring those
things into the realm of the present as we declare them with our mouth and with our actions. Praise helps us to get a handle on things.
When I get well--not if I get well.
When I go to college--not if I go to college
When God gives me this new job--not if I ever get a job.
Thankking Him in advance just like Abraham did brings the things that "be not" into existence for us because we are cooperating with God in the process.
CONCLUSION: GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE A REASON TO CELEBRATE. WE ARE A COVENANT PEOPLE.
O Clap your hands
Psalm 47:1
Make a joyful noise
Psalm 66:1
Sing forth
Psalm 66:2
Magnify the Lord
Psalm 34:3
Lift up your hands
Psalm 134:2
...BECAUSE IT IS A GOOD THING.
Psalm 147
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