Tag: hebrews

Sweet smell of Praise.

                As I walked out of the daycare, from dropping my youngest son off, a few mornings ago, there was a strong smell that hit my nostrils.  It wasn’t repulsive by any means rather, it was sweet and soft to smell.  It brought my head to attention looking for where it was coming from.  My mind immediately thought, this is like the sweet smell that God has when we praise him.  The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.”  In the end of verse 16 it tells us that praise is one of the sacrifices that please God.   We don’t really think of our praise being a sacrifice, because a sacrifice is something we must give up or surrender.  Lets think for a minute though. After I smelled that beautiful aroma, and the sun was shinning on my back, and my life was “good” at that moment. It was easy for me to praise God at that moment for all he has provided and given to me and my family.  But, when times are harder and there’s rain in the sky, and creditors are pushing in on every side, and sickness is racking the body of my child, is it as easy to praise him? NO! I must CHOOSE and surrender my personal human feelings at that moment and praise God.  I have personally been guilty of being able to sing his praises when the times are so easy and things look so good, but when things get harder it’s a conscious choice I must make, to look for things to praise Him for.

Today, no matter what place your in, your praises to God, whether in song or prayer, are a sweet smell to your savior.  What better way to please him then to give him praise today!  I choose to be a sweet smell rather than a repulsive smell of grumbling and complaining!

Adjust your grip.

You are on that last mile of a half marathon, 5K, full marathon, or even the first mile you have ran in a long time, and your lungs are burning, your legs feel like Jell-O and every cell in your body is crying for you to stop, to give up.  But, you mind refuses, you think of all you have trained for, what you have dreamed about, and so you push through. You overcome the weakness in your body and you strengthen you weak knees.  Maybe you’re hanging from that pull up bar trying to achieve your personal goal of accomplishing a specific amount of pull ups.  Your natural reaction would be to drop from the bar because your hands hurt, the blisters are forming and your arms are aching.  But, you adjust your grip and you hold on and push through to accomplish your goal.

If you in a place in your life that you feel like giving up.  It feels like all the pressures are closing in on you the bible gives us some instructions.  Hebrews 12:12-13 says to take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen you weak knees.  You may ask, why does it really matter if I give up?  It only affects me right.  The next verse tells us the reason why we need to keep pushing through.  It’s because we are cutting a new path for someone else’s to come along behind us to follow.  The scripture says it’s to forge a new path that those who may be weaker than us can follow behind us and they can have victory because we did not give up.  Those watching us and following us may feel weak but when they see us prevail they will become stronger in their life and faith. 

So when you finishing that last mile of the race, and you push through those last few pull ups, those coming behind you get excited and full of the energy that you have, and they push through their own struggles and are able to have victory along with you!