Three Ways to Offer a Sacrifice of Praise

I received the diagnosis and had no idea what I was going to do. A million thoughts flooded my mind. I could barely register what the doctor was saying with all the thoughts coming in, but it was clear: I was losing my hearing.  Every thought from how I am going to teach to when is the last time I will hear music came into my head. Nothing about this scenario seemed praiseworthy. There was not much in me in that moment that even felt like praising God. Yet, God is faithful and led me to understand the sacrifice of praise no matter the journey before me. Maybe God is doing the same for you today.

 The Sacrifice

 I had recently gotten my life right with God when I received my diagnosis for my hearing. While I was thankful to have him with me through this, I must admit I was mad. I felt like everything else had been taken from me, and now God was taking this from me. Why was I still on this earth if everything was going to be taken away?

Even in my anger, sadness, frustration, I asked God to comfort me. He led me to Psalm 29 and reminded me that whether I had my physical hearing or not, I would always be able to hear his voice above all else. Through brokenness and sobs, I praised the Lord for this truth. Was that easy to do? Nope. Did it resolve all my worries? No. Did it bring me to the throne room of God? Absolutely. It brough to place where I could clearly hear and see him.

Hebrews 13:15 is a reminder that we are to offer up a sacrifice of praise to the Father continually as “fruit of lips that acknowledge him.” When we are facing difficulties, heartache, or the diagnosis, it is not easy to sacrifice our feelings, thoughts, and actions to God so that we may praise him. In that moment, we want to know we or our loved ones are going to make it. However, if we can learn to practice the sacrifice of praise, we may find the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Three Ways to Offer a Sacrifice of Praise

 1)        Be authentic

When I received my diagnosis, there was no hiding how I felt. I was scared, hurt, and desperate and told God so. Trying to pretend as though we are not experiencing those feelings keeps us in the cycle of those feelings. Being our authentic selves allows God not only to bind our broken hearts, but also allows us to experience peace and hope.

Some of the greatest heroes of faith spoke their hearts to God: David, Job, and Moses to name a few. Through their authenticity, God made David king and gave him a family lineage from which Jesus was born; Job’s losses were restored two-fold; Moses came face to face with God and was given the ten commandments. God still used them, favored them, and led them. He will do the same for us.

2)        Sacrifice

It is not easy to let go of what we hold so dear. Whether it be our children, our jobs, or even our hearing, to surrender can make us feel helpless, maybe even powerless. But it is in the surrender that we are sacrificing. We are sacrificing our need to control, our need to seek justice, our desire for things of this world. We sacrifice them so that we may give praise to the Father allowing him to do his will in and through us.

Through our surrendering, we find more peace, hope, and healing than we could ever find on our own. Surrendering my hearing definitely brought me peace, but God also orchestrated connections for me to have support through friends, receive hearing aids, and use this event as a part of my testimony which brought hope and healing for me as well. In this journey I learned to praise him “that is, [keep him as] the fruit of lips that acknowledge Him” (vs. 15).

3)        Bear Fruit

When we are facing life’s hardships, it is easy to remain in the muck and mire of our circumstances. And some of our circumstances can certainly reflect “pits of hell” type quality! Yet, to remain there does not permit God to be the fruit of our lips, the praises we lift up.

Through authenticity and sacrificing, we can move through those pits, the muck and mire, to share the fruit of acknowledging him. We can tell others of him and his work in our lives! Additionally, we have a front row seat to all God can and will do with what we surrender. For example, a few years after my crisis with my hearing, God revealed a purpose of the loss to me: reading others. My brain had naturally taken over to compensate for my loss while I was teaching. However, I left that field to go into ministry, and eventually became a therapist. Within ministry and as a therapist, I saw the benefits of reading a room and people. This has allowed me to “hear” what often is not verbally stated.

Without moving from the pain of my circumstances, I could not have made it to where I am. And without this movement, there would be little to no fruit on my lips. Yet, not only am I able to recognize my journey for what it is, but also I am able to praise God for who he is, for what he has done, and for what he will do!

Final Thoughts

No journey in life is without its hardships. Yet, when we face them, we have a way to give God glory in how we overcome those moments through authenticity, sacrifice, and bearing fruit. These elements provide us opportunities to know and experience God in ways in which we cannot help but bear the fruit of lips that acknowledge him!