Broken Hallelujahs

***Note : Stop the music player to the right in order to hear the song to go with this blog.


It's came to me again today that sometimes all we have to give feels like it is not enough. We feel that our praises to God are so broken and meaningless. We feel that we are so torn and shattered that nothing we can say or do could have meaning, worth, and value. Maybe someone out there today is dealing with this very issue.  I have went through many trials, especially during the last 18 months or so, and dealt with a body that was so broken, torn, and broken that I literally couldn't even utter a spoken word, stand to lift my hands in worship to my King and Savior Jesus.  It's so very frustrating to be stuck in a body that keeps you imprisoned during everyday life, especially when all you desire to do is stand with your arms stretched towards the heavens in complete and utter praise and thanks to God. But you can't. You can't stand with your arms above your head due to a disease that will land you on the floor once the blood drains from your arms down into your legs causing you to collapse and faint. When the disease steals from you your voice to sing out in praise, steals from you the clarity of thought making it hard to pray, steals from you the strength to do all that your heart desires to do in worship and praise. It's the times like this that we must remember this one very important thing. God SEES and HEARS our thoughts and desires!!!  If we truly desire to be standing before Him completely oblivious to this world in praise and adoration to Him, then he sees that desire! God loves us even when our bodies are of absolutely no use to ourselves. But we must remember this also. Not only does God see and love our desires to worship Him with complete abandonment, people around us can read it on our faces, from our actions, hear it from our mouths.  What a better testimony could we be than someone physically incapable to worship as others, but so desiring to be near to God that we push the boundaries? We push in anyway possible, regardless of the fatigue and consequences of our disease, and we push until we find ourselves in the very presence of the One we've longed to be in the presence of... the Savior! Sometimes all we have to offer is a Broken Hallelujah and shattered praise.  But if we offer this, give all that our broken bodies will allow, then we MUST know that God is faithful! He'll never desert us, leave us to be in that place pushing to reach Him alone with our brokeness.  He'll ALWAYS reach out, come to us, and meet us with a warm embrace of love that only the Father can offer His child!  Next time when you are having a knock down, drug down, and awful kind of day that no one around you can possibly understand, when you find yourself feeling alone and unworthy of the very air you breathe, take the breath God's given you and utter forth a broken Hallelujah. Give Him your shattered praise.  God inhabits the praises of His people! Check this out!

PRAISE comes from the Latin word "pretium", meaning price. Prize is a variation of this word. Originally it meant "to set a great price on". So when we praise God, we are placing a great value on Him and His acts. God sees us as His "treasured possession" (Duet. 7:6, Exodus 19:5), and He wants to be our Treasure and our First Love. PRAISE FOR GOD IS COMMUNICATING WHO GOD IS, WHAT HE HAS DONE, AND WHAT HE CAN DO. PRAISE IS A WEAPON AGAINST EVIL & THE ENEMIES OF GOD: 1. PRAISE HONORS GOD - In Luke 11 Jesus taught us to begin prayer with praise in order to honor and glorify God. Psalm 29:2 tells us to give God the glory that is due Him. Praise helps us to focus on God, and who He is, and His greatness. 2. PRAISE HELPS US FOCUS ON GOD - Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people. As we praise Him we raise up a throne or structure for Him to fill (2 Chron. 5:13). Praise sensitizes us to God's presence, and helps us take our focus off of ourselves and onto Him. 3. PRAISE HELPS US TO KNOW GOD - It helps us to focus on His character and His attributes. As we praise Him we rehearse our knowledge of Him, and we come to know Him as what we praise Him to be. 4. PRAISE BREAKS THE ENEMY'S OPPRESSION - In Acts 16:25,26 Paul and Silas praised God and the doors in the prison they were in were opened and they escaped. Praise lifts us out of oppression, and also helps us out of our self-centered ways. 5. PRAISE CONFUSES THE FORCES OF EVIL - The power of praise in battles is shown in 2 Chronicles 20, Psalm 8:2, and Psalm 149:5-9. Praise helps us to focus on God and realize our need for Him, and thus turn the battle over to Him. When we do this, God will then bring Victory. This makes Praise and Prayer and Dependence on God great weapons in Spiritual Battles.  (link to where I got this section is HERE) Use your broken praises to fight the turmoils this life and body have placed on you! Praising God brings us closer to Him and the closer we get and the more we allow Him a place in our lives, the more that we are not alone in all this. Let God be your shoulder, your friend, your healer, your savior. Much love and prayers to all who find and read this. Sincerely, Miranda