Praise Challenge – “Shout to God with joyful praise”

“Praise” has been a grounding word for me recently. The Lord spoke it over me back in September at a women’s conference.

I went to a corner of the room and began praying and crying (that weekend I discovered that when I feel the presence of the Lord, I cry haha). I was praying about wanting more of Him. More of His Spirit. I just wanted to encounter more. And was asking about what He wanted from me to bring Him glory, how would I be used for His Kingdom?

And I felt Him tell me: “Never stop praising me.”

I began crying harder as I responded, “I never will.”

Prior to going to the corner, the Spirit had made my right arm feel extremely extremely heavy and numb. Like, I couldn’t move it, it felt so weird. So when He spoke that over me, I felt like He was affirming the power my right arm – my writing arm – has in His Kingdom.

Writing has always been something I’ve never been able to stop doing. In seasons where I stop blogging or journaling… I feel the negative affect it has on my life. It’s impossible for me to forever stop writing about Him and giving Him praise through my words.

I felt like His words to me that night and the heaviness in my right arm, was an affirmation of that place in His Kingdom He has for me.

Since then, He’s brought me back to the word “praise” constantly.

In the moments when my thoughts are tough, my heart is hurting, or my soul feels like it has ties to the wrong thing… He has been reminding me to center myself on Him again by praising.

Praising Him for all He is and all He’s done.

To not focus on all I don’t have, or all I want, all I desire, or all I wish had or hadn’t happened in my life…

But to simply refocus myself on Him – and all He has given and done.

Even though I know this and try to do it, it’s still so tough. I still get wrapped up in the negatives.

My newest Jericho Prayer is “Align. Align all my thoughts, my heart, and my soul to You.”

I want everything to turn back to Him and Him alone.

So I’ve decided I want to do a “Praise Challenge” for the next month. A month of posting, every day, a praise for the Lord. Some days might be filled with many thing or big things, and some days might be filled with the mundane. But I want to retrain my mind to focus on praise, and not desires.

I’d love for anyone to join me in this “Praise Challenge”! And it could be in any form. Whether it’s posting on social media, writing it down every day, keeping a note on your phone… whatever it is, I’d love for others to join me.

And if you do, let me know! I’d love to follow along on your praise journey to be mutually encouraged in all the Lord is doing in your life.

The challenge will officially start tomorrow – October 29th – and will go until the end of November. But if you’re reading this today, I don’t think we should ever stop ourselves from praising Him 🙂 So I’ll challenge you to start TODAY!

At the end of the challenge, I’ll write a blog recapping testimonies from this. I look forward to hearing them!

 

[Psalm 47]

Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!

For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth.

He subdues the nations before us, putting our enemies beneath our feet.

He chose the Promised Land as our inheritance, the proud possession of Jacob’s descendants, whom he loves.

God has ascended with a mighty shout. The Lord has ascended with trumpets blaring.

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises!

For God is the King over all the earth. Praise Him with a psalm.

God reigns above the nations, sitting on His holy throne.

The rulers of the world have gathered together with the people of the God of Abraham. For all the kings of the earth belong to God. He is highly honored everywhere.