praise Archives - Sharla Fritz

Sharla September 1, 2020

Praise God Through the Psalms

Praising God isn’t always easy in this troubled world. But I find help in Scripture when I praise God through the psalms.

King David wrote:

“I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Psalm 34:1)

To be honest, I don’t always feel like praising God so when I read David’s words in Psalm 34, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth,” I say, “Really David? Continually?”

Looking at this particular psalm, I see in the introduction that David wrote these words of praise after he had escaped from the king of Gath without harm. David often praised God for His power, strength, and protection after a victory.

However, David didn’t limit his praise time to periods of peace and joy; he praised God in tough situations as well. Many of the psalms begin with David wailing about his circumstances but end with praising adulation. So when I’m feeling heartsick, despondent, or just plain glum, I turn to the book of Psalms and use David’s words of praise when I can’t find any of my own.

Praising God in Good Times and Bad

Praising God in the good times reminds me that my blessings come from God. But even when I am not ecstatic about my circumstances, I can still praise God for His power to work everything out, for His wisdom and ability to see the situation from an eternal perspective, and for His comfort in the struggle.

Praising God in the tough times takes my eyes off myself and puts them back on God—where they belong. So even if I open the book of Psalms when I’m feeling like a gray November day, I close the book sensing God’s light penetrating my spirit. When I start out not feeling even a syllable of praise in my heart, I usually end up with songs of worship and joy percolating in my soul.

I am learning to praise God–continually.

Praise God through the Psalms

No matter what your mood or circumstance, you can find a psalm to help you find words of praise. Here are a few suggestions. Choose the psalm to match what your heart feels today.

When you feel joyful: Psalms 9, 16, 22, 33, 98, 126

When you are thankful: Psalms 100, 107, 118, 136, 138

When you are in awe of God: Psalms 8, 18, 19, 29, 103

When you feel sad or despondent: Psalms 30, 42, 43, 116, 143

When you are lonely: Psalms 27, 40, 68, 90

When you are in distress: Psalms 4, 24, 46, 102

When you need forgiveness: Psalms 32, 85, 103

When you are waiting: Psalms 27, 40, 130

When you feel afraid or anxious: Psalms 34, 37, 56, 91

Next step: Do you find it easy to praise God today? or difficult? Examine the emotions in your heart and find a psalm of praise to use today. Praise God continually! And if you would like a printable version of this list to keep with your Bible, click here.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise

Sharla August 25, 2020

Praising God by Name

What does praising God by name mean?

Praising God by name means much more than simply using “God” or “Lord” or “Christ” in our worship. It means praising God’s character. King David wrote:

“Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!”
Psalm 34:3

In Bible times, names had great significance, often revealing a person’s attributes. In modern times, we may not consider what a name means when we choose it for our newborn. Do you know what your name means?

In one Bible study I attended, one of the members gave each of us a gift of a bookmark with our name and its meaning on it. My name is pretty unusual, but she discovered that Sharla is a variant of Charla, which means warrior. I’m not sure I would ever describe myself as a warrior!

The Names of God Found in Scripture

In Middle Eastern culture, names are chosen according to the character traits that parents would like to see develop in their offspring. And in the Bible, God revealed His attributes through different names. I’m not sure that warrior really fits my personality, but God’s names definitely do tell us about His character. Michael Youssef in his book, Empowered by Praise, wrote:

“The names of God as revealed in Scripture, are not a human invention. They are the way God has chosen to reveal His character to us. The names of God are a composite of God’s revelation of His nature, His identity, His sovereignty, and His desires.”

God deliberately made Himself known by specific names in Scripture. When I worship Him using these names, I begin to grasp His true nature. This kind of praise allows me to know Him as He wants to be known. Amazing!

Praising God by Name

Let me give you an example of what this might look like with a few of God’s names. I’ve listed the name, the meaning, a verse of Scripture where the name is used. (I have included a link to an interlinear version of the Bible where you can see the Hebrew name). Then I’ve written a short prayer of praise using that particular name of God.

Elohim “Mighty God, Creator” Genesis 1:1

Elohim, Almighty God, I praise You for Your great might and power! You alone are the maker of the universe. Your creativity knows no bounds. Because You have created all things, I see Your beauty in everything I around me.

El Roi “The God Who Sees Me” Genesis 16:13-14

El Roi, You are the God who sees. You see everything and nothing escapes Your gaze. Because You are great, and I am small, I could easily be overlooked. Yet You see me, you notice me. You see each difficulty. You notice every heartache. Because you make note of every tear that falls, I am comforted.

El Shaddai “God Almighty” Genesis 17:1-2

El Shaddai, You are God Almighty. Nothing is too hard for You. Moving a mountain is just as easy as feeding a sparrow. Right now, some things in my life appear impossible, but because of Your might and power, I know that everything will work out. I praise You, El Shaddai

Yahweh Yireh “The Lord Will Provide” Genesis 22:13-14

Yahweh Yireh, You are the great Provider. Help me remember that fact when I start to wonder about finances or when I can’t see how difficulties in my life can be resolved. You own everything in the world, so You can easily give me everything I need. Help me to trust in Your provision.

When you read the Scripture associated with each name in context, you will notice that particular characteristic of God had significant meaning for the Bible character at that point of time. We may also find a certain name for God more meaningful in different situations of life. When I’m driving through a breath-taking mountain pass, I may naturally want to praise Elohim, the God of creation. When I face a financial crisis, I may want to call out to Yahweh Yireh–the Great Provider. And I can go to El Roi, the God who sees me, when I feel insignificant and unnoticed.

A Resource to Help You Praise God by Name

To help you adopt the habit of praising God by name, I have put together a list of eighteen names of God found in Scripture. I’ve included the name, its meaning, and a key Scripture reference where the name is used.

Next Step: Click here to get this helpful resource! May your awareness of God grow as you praise Him by name.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise

Sharla August 18, 2020

The ABCs of Praise

Too often my conversations with God sound like a long list of things I want. They resemble a child’s Christmas wish list instead of worship of the Almighty. That’s when I go back to the beginning–the ABCs of Praise.

Yes, my prayers almost always include petitions for what I want Him to do for me. Sometimes I add thanksgiving for things He has already done.

But I forget to praise Him for simply who He is.

Praise appreciates God for His character and not only for what He can do for me. It acknowledges God as a person to be appreciated, a Sovereign Being to be worshiped and not simply a genie to do my bidding.

And even when I purposefully set my mind to praise mode, my mind wanders. I pray, “I praise You, Lord, for Your Might, for Your Awesome power in creation.” But the next second I think, “Remember to pick up shredded cheese for tonight’s tacos.” I chide myself and pick up where I left off, “I praise You, Lord, for Your Omniscience, You always know the end before the beginning. You know what is best for me.” But then I think, “Remember to call the dentist to make an appointment.” And on it goes.

Learning from King David and the Psalms

I often look to King David and his book of psalms for instruction in the art of worship. David’s psalms are full of praise for God’s goodness, strength, honor, wisdom.

For example, Psalm 34 begins:

I will extol the Lord at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
I will glory in the Lord;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together. (verses 1-3)

This psalm uses an interesting technique–using the Hebrew alphabet as an acrostic. Each verse of the psalm begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Using the ABCs of Praise

I have also found that using our alphabet helps me focus my mind when I truly want to praise God. During my time of worship, I praise God for attributes that begin with each letter of the alphabet. For instance, “I praise you God for Your Almighty power, I marvel in Your Beauty, and I am moved by Your Compassion.”

This technique keeps my mind from wandering back to my to-do list when I truly want to be concentrating on God. It helps me to be creative as I strive to find new attributes of God each time I go through the alphabet. Praising God for His character enables me to know God in a deeper way. It strengthens my faith as I concentrate on His goodness and strength.

Try praising God through the alphabet!

The ABCs of Praising God

Use the alphabet to praise God for who He is. Here are a few ABCs of Praise to get you started.

A Abba Father

B Beginning and End

C Comforter

D Defender

E Everlasting

F Faithful

G Generous

H Holy

I Immortal

J Just

K Kind

L Loving

If you want even more suggestions, check out this printable (pictured below.) It includes the whole alphabet and has more than 100 ways to praise God through the alphabet. Print it out, keep it by your Bible, and use it to guide your praise session of the Most High God!

Next Step: Click here to get this helpful resource. May your praise for our awesome God grow as you work through the list of God’s awesome qualities!

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise

Sharla March 15, 2016

One Selfish Reason to Praise God

I woke too early. My body was still tired, but my internal clock was still on Central Time even though I was in Hawaii. We had arrived the night before, tired from travel, and flopped into bed.

But now I was wide awake. I made my way to the windows and pushed open the curtains. I gasped at the beauty of the sun just peeking out of the gray Pacific. The sky was a spectacular painting of pink, purple, and mauve.

My heart swelled in praise and I couldn’t help singing “10,000 Reasons.” The sun was coming up. A new day was dawning. It was time to praise the Creator.

Sometimes it’s easy to praise God. The beauty of creation inspires thanksgiving. God sends overflowing blessings into our lives and we are grateful. We recognize His power in our lives and we are in awe.

But sometimes praise doesn’t come easy. Life is difficult. Problems sprout like weeds. Instead of having “10,000 Reasons” to praise, we struggle to come up with one.

That’s when we need to remember to praise God for who He is and not simply for what He gives us.

Psalm 95 gives three reasons to praise God:

Because He is the God above all gods. We praise Him for His Kingship. We praise Him for His ruling power.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. (Psalm 95:3)

Because everything on earth was made by Him and belongs to Him. We praise Him for His omnipotence and creative power.

In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:4-5)

Because He cares for us. We praise His love, His compassion, His provision, and His protection toward us.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:6-7)

God deserves praise. And that should be enough reason to shower Him with honor and adoration.

But praise also brings a side benefit to those who are doing the praising.

In the middle of verse 7 the psalmist takes an abrupt turn from praising God to remind his readers not to harden their hearts.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, (Psalm 95:7b-8)

We all need this reminder. At times we all stubbornly insist on our own way and steel our hearts against God’s gentle nudges. Or we get so busy and preoccupied with life’s little hassles that we don’t even hear His voice.

Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary on this psalm, “Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all our distrusts of God and quarrels with Him.”

But maybe in looking at this psalm we can see that praise can be preventative medicine to a hard heart.

We praise God for His sake, but a wonderful side-effect happens when we do. When we extol God’s mercy and power, God rewires our souls–reminding our stubborn selfish hearts just how wonderful He is.

When we extol God's mercy and power, He rewires our souls--reminding our selfish hearts how wonderful He is. Click To Tweet

Praise keeps our hearts soft toward God as we praise Him for His goodness.

Next step: Write out your own psalm of praise. Praise God for His Kingship, for His creative power, and for His compassionate care.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise, prayer

Sharla July 9, 2015

6 Ways to Worship When Your Worship Has Grown Stale

I remember a day when worship happened instinctively.

The sky was bright with the setting sun.

As the sun bounced it’s rays on the clouds the sky turned gold, then pink, then purple.

I stopped watering my begonias for a minute and worshiped.

I have to admit that too often the only worshiping I do is at church on Sunday morning. And sometimes what I am doing in the sanctuary can’t even be called worship. Even though my mouth may be mumbling words of praise, my mind wanders to my grocery list, my upcoming appointments, and just where the lady in front of me got that cute dress.

But I want to learn to praise my awesome God who deserves adoration. So this week I am asking God to teach me to worship.

Scripture tells us:

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Psalm 29:2

Here are some ways of worship I have already tried:

Praying the psalms. I knelt down at my chair and prayed through psalms of praise like Psalms 8, 19, 29, and 33. I spoke them out loud.
Listening to praise music. I pulled up a praise station on Pandora and worshiped along with the music for 15 minutes.
Spontaneous worship. I looked for glimpses of God in my ordinary day like the spectacular sunset or a butterfly flitting around my garden. I praised God for His beauty evident in creation.

Here are some ways I am going to try in the future:

A new setting. I am planning to go to a church that I do not regularly attend that has a beautiful sanctuary. I want to go when the place is quiet so I can worship in solitude.
Create a worship board. I want to make a visual tool for adoration. Using pictures of things that remind me of God, I will create a photo collage.
Using hymns. Great hymns like “How Great Thou Art” and “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” inspire praise when we really study the words. I am planning to memorize the words to some classic hymns.

As I expand my worship experience, I hope to become a more proficient praiser of my awesome God!

Next step: Which of the worship experiences above sound interesting to you? Choose one and implement it this week. Whatever you decide to do, do it for the Almighty God.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise, worship

Sharla March 3, 2015

Side Effects of…Praising God

My husband has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has begun the road to recovery. Recently he had his first round of chemotherapy. The effects of the drugs were amazing. Just three short days after competing the infusion of drugs, we saw a major reduction in the visible tumors! We praise God for the healing that is taking place.

Unfortunately there are also negative side-effects. He has a severe sore throat–making talking very painful. One of the drugs gives extreme exhaustion. But one of the other medicines has the maddening side effect of the inability to sleep.

In all of life we experience unexpected side effects to circumstances and choices in our lives–not all of them positive. But there is one choice we can make that promises many positive side effects–

the choice to praise God

Of course, we praise God simply because He deserves praise. Psalm 65:1 says, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.” God is holy, mighty, loving, generous, and merciful. He is the King of the universe and the Lord of our hearts and so we praise Him. In fact, there are times when our hearts nearly burst with praise for the Ruler of all–who is also the One who holds our hands.

But even while we are praising God for who He is, we may experience some side effects:

Praise lifts our souls out of despair. In Psalm 42:5 the psalmist instructs his soul to praise God, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (NIV) He doesn’t feel like praising the Lord in that moment, but He knows God is the source of hope. When we praise God we change our focus from our problems to the God who is bigger than any difficulty. Despair is defeated and hope is reborn.

Praise brings us to the presence of God. You may have heard the phrase, “God inhabits the praises of His people,” This is a paraphrase of Psalm 22:3, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (KJV). God, of course, is present everywhere. He inhabits every church, every home, every valley, every forest–but we don’t always notice Him. Praising the Lord of the universe reminds us He is right here with us.

Praise lets others know what God has done. Praise is an effective evangelism tool. Psalm 40:3 says, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.” People are looking for the answers to their problems. They are searching for something bigger than themselves. When we praise God for what He has done and for who He is, others see the difference God makes. They are drawn to the God of mercy and love.

So praise God. Praise Him for His power, generosity, and grace. Experience the positive side effects.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: praise, side effects

Sharla August 19, 2014

God is a God of Celebration?

This month has been a time of celebration for my family. My son (the baby of the family) got married on August 9! My husband performed the service, I sang a song, the little grandsons were all ring bearers. At the reception we feasted, laughed, and danced until our feet ached.

August 9th was not only my son’s wedding day, but my wedding anniversary! Here’s a picture of John and me with our wedding photo.

This August 9 will be a time of celebration that will live long in my memory.

Did you know our God is a God of celebration?

For much of my life, that thought seemed incongruous with the Lord I knew. Growing up, God seemed to be a God of serious thought and solemn ceremonies, not a God of rejoicing and celebrating.

But looking closer in the Scriptures, I see God truly is a God of celebration. In the Old Testament Yahweh commanded His chosen people to observe seven feasts each year. For three of these feasts they were to abandon their work and travel to Jerusalem to celebrate their God (Deuteronomy 16:16). These were times of feasting and rejoicing—times to thank God for what He had done for them in the past and revel in the blessings He had bestowed on them in the present.

In the New Testament Jesus was known as a partier. The Pharisees criticized Him for eating and drinking with sinners (Matthew 9:11). People wondered why the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s followers fasted, but Jesus’ disciples went on eating and drinking (Luke 6:33). Parties were a favorite theme in Jesus’ parables. The people in His stories celebrated finding a lost lamb, a lost coin, and a lost son (Luke 15). Jesus even compared the kingdom of God to a sumptuous banquet (Luke 14:15-24).

Too often my worship of my generous, caring, loving God is sedate, somber, and dull. But I want to learn how to celebrate!

Instead of absent-mindedly mumbling my way through worship on Sunday, I want to passionately express love to my King. Instead of looking cool, calm, and collected, I’m going to clap along with the praise songs and sing the hymns at the top of my lungs.

Maybe I’ll even dance. Some churches even use liturgical dance to celebrate our awesome God. I may not dance in church, but maybe I can do it in the privacy of my own home. Admittedly this may feel a bit risky and undignified. But I will be in good company. King David was criticized by his wife, Michal, when He worshiped without inhibitions. David was focused on praising God and not on how he looked. He told Michal, “I will celebrate before the Lord” (2 Samuel 6:21 emphasis mine).

So this week celebrate our awesome God. Sing and clap and dance your worship!

Question: Give your reaction to the statement: Our God is a God of celebration.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: celebration, joy, praise, worship

Sharla May 15, 2014

When You Struggle to Rejoice

Do you struggle to rejoice? Does the command in Philippians 4:4 make you wince?

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!

I certainly have days when it’s hard to be full of joy. Hard to rejoice in anything.

And what is rejoicing anyway?

I looked up the word rejoice in my Greek dictionary and found that it comes from the word chairo.

It carries the idea of being glad about something. It is the picture of a person who is euphoric over something that has happened. Other words to describe chairo would be overjoyed, elated, ecstatic, exhilarated, thrilled, jubilant, or even rapturous. (from Sparkling Gems From the Greek, p. 682)

When I read that I asked myself–when was the last time I was purely ecstatic about God? When did I feel thrilled in God’s presence?

I think it’s been too long.

But perhaps it’s because I keep looking for joy in other things. I expect to find it in success. Or friendship.

I wait for joy to happen when everything goes according to my plan.

And because that isn’t very likely, joy remains elusive.

Perhaps I should be glad that I can’t always find joy in something other than Jesus. Because then in my desperation, I’m forced to look to the only reliable Source of joy–my Savior.

God doesn’t tell us to be euphoric over success, or achievement, or even cute shoes because none of those are lasting.

God asks to be elated in Him.

Next step: Have you struggled to rejoice this week? Take all of your disappointments to God. Then rejoice that He hears your prayers and cares about your problems–big and small.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: joy, praise