(Phil 4:4-7) When our requests are made known to God with thanksgiving for all that He had already done for us, then the peace of God will keep our heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Paul in the midst of all his suffering praised God (II Cor 4:8-10). Peace or joy comes when we focus our mind on God and His promises and start praising Him, a supernatural peace follows – a peace that no man can understand. When our mind is focused on God, we will have perfect peace (Is 26:3).

A Christian should be one who gives glory and credit to God, who is thankful, humble and praises God.

II Col. 2:6, 7 says we abound in faith with thanksgiving which is a part of praise. By operating in praise we will build up our faith and make it complete. We can increase our faith and operate in a high form of faith by praising God from the moment we see the problem or need we face. We should get our attention off of the problem and onto the answer and get to a place where our faith – our attention is focused upon Jesus, the Word of God and His promises. When we do that, faith works. Faith is dependent upon thoughts and our mindset. If we think on problems, we are going to have unbelief and doubt. To let our emotion and feelings rule us is very immature. Emotions are never to dictate us, we are to control them. Just because we feel depressed does not mean we have to be depressed. We can choose to build our self up, encouraging ourselves in the Lord, as David did (II Sam. 6:14-16). He did not give in to depression. He praised God, dancing and singing in the streets in front of the entire nation of Israel. The scriptures call David – a man after God’s own heart (I Sam 13:14).

When we begin to worship God, it touches the heart of God and all Heaven goes to dancing and praising God (Zeph. 3:17)

(I Pet 5:5-6) Praising God and giving thanks unto Him makes us humble. Praise reminds us who our source is – GOD.

(Psalm 8:2) Praise and the word of God together is the greatest weapon we have against satan and his daily onslaught

(Neh. 8:10) “The joy of the Lord is your strength”. Praising God makes satan flee in terror and the anointing of God is able to manifest itself in the absence of opposition from the devil. Praise is spiritual warfare. When sickness tries to come upon our body, we should begin to praise God and thank Him for healing us.       II Cor. 3:17 says – where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty – freedom. Freedom only God can give, to those who enter His gates with thanksgiving and those who come into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). The Holy Spirit fills our whole being and surrounds us with God’s love and grace and whatever trouble we have fades into the background in the light of His glory.

In Acts 16:23-25, Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for preaching the Gospel, as they began to praise and worship God, suddenly there was a great earthquake and the prison doors were all opened and everyone were set free. We should not wait for our circumstances to change before we praise God. Praising God will make our circumstances change. It stops satan and neutralizes his power in our life.

In II Chr. 20:20-24, when the three kings with their armies were about to come against Jehoshaphat, he put the singers and the musicians in the frontline of the battle, singing praises. They believed God for supernatural deliverance. When they began to sing and praise the Lord, the Lord set ambushments against the enemy. Later when the Israelites looked over the battlefield, not one of the enemy soldiers were left alive. Praise releases God’s power and strength to still the enemy -  satan looses his power, when God’s people begin to praise.

When tempted to sin or faced by some problem, we should lift our voice to Heaven and start praising God in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19), then we feel the peace of God come upon us and we will know the devil is defeated in whatever area we are troubled (James 4:7).

We should be a doer of the Word. Whatever trails we undergo, we should rejoice in the Lord, believing God’s grace is sufficient for us. He is no respecter of persons. What He did for Jehoshaphat, He will do for us.

Eph. 3:17-19- God desires to have close, intimate relationship with us. As we begin to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, we will see the intimate personal relationship develop. The love of God will be shed abroad in our heart. We do not have to earn or work for God’s love. He loves us.  We should thank Him for that love remembering the great things He has done for us. Jesus came to this earth not only to forgive mankind of their sins but to bring us eternal – everlasting life (John 3:16). He came to bring us into relationship with God, removing the barrier of sin that stood between us and God. Man could not overcome his own sinfulness, so Jesus died for our sins. Sin was moved out of the way, so we could have close intimate relationship with God – eternal life. This is not something that is going to happen when we go to Heaven If we know Jesus as our Saviour and get our sins forgiven, but do not enter into an intimate relationship with God, we are missing out on what eternal life is all about. Eternal life is knowing God. Our relationship with God has to be our foundation - the priority above everything else (John 17:3).

Eternal life is not living forever in this life and never dying. The Bible says that no one ceases to exist (Matt. 25:46). We will either live forever with God in Heaven (I John 5:13) or forever with satan in the lake of fire which is called the second death (Rev. 20:14) (Rev. 21:8).    

God would like us to stop awhile everyday and praise and worship Him. Spend time with Him the way we would spend time with our closest friend (Psalm 150). We should make praise a part of our daily life. Keep our mindset on things above and not let the cares of this world pull us down because if God be for us, who can be against us(Romans 8:31).