I am typically around my husband and kids and I find that the atmosphere may not always be great, but usually it is. Why? Because over the years, especially during our roughest and hardest times, instead of complaining, we have learned to be grateful and thankful, praising God amidst our storms.
Praising and worshiping God invites His presence in our lives as it says in Psalm 100, which I absolutely love.
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
1
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
It is a challenge, a great challenge to praise God during a storm. I'm not saying you have to be happy that you are going through a bad time or that bad things are happening. But, God is still God whether we are going through good or bad times or the in between. It is not because of God's doing that bad things happen, rather it's because we live in a sinful world that things happen. God still gives EACH person free will and some people's free will is to do harm and create devastation purposefully. Then, there are things like acts of nature like hurricanes that destroy homes and lives, tornadoes that rip through communities causing great harm, tsunamis that wipe out towns and families.
We live in a sinful world and bad things do happen. But, I have also seen through these bad things that people do band together, change begins to take place. Unfortunately for most humans, myself included, pain usually is a great instigator for change.
I truly believe and have experienced what happens when you begin to praise God through your storms. It keeps the enemy at bay or from further bad things happening. This past week, I have spent a lot of time with someone I love dearly and most of the things that person does verbally is complain, be critical, judgmental, nag, and a host of negative things.
As many of my posts have been dealing with soul wounds and healing those wounds, when our wounds are healed, the impact the enemy can have on us is very little. However, this week, as the week has worn off, I have found myself in tears multiple times, resorting to drinking caffeine & sugar through sodas, and feeling incredibly discouraged, unfocused, burned out, despondent.
God is not a God of complaining, murmuring, the critical voice. God does not nag. I have felt the weight of these words weighing heavily on me.
Maybe your intent is to help, but often our words can have such a negative impact on a person, it's awful. I have felt like this this week instead of who God says that I am. And, why I have listened to those words is because I realize I still have many soul wounds there that need to be healed. Those are things in common I have with the enemy, which gives the enemy legal right to torment me, which he has.
So, before I can pray for someone else that has the critical, judgmental, nagging, complaining voice, I must get my soul wounds healed here myself before I can take effectively pray for someone else here.
It's funny, but not, that I noticed there have been a number of other people that I have attracted lately with this same voice and I have had no power over the enemy because of my own wounds. It's left me sobbing some days and concerns my husband.
Not only do we need to be in a continual praise and worship of God, but we also need to get our soul wounds healed here, take our authority over the enemy and kick him out of our lives, but we must not engage in this. The enemy can't make you do anything, rather he can greatly influence you or tempt you. When our souls are healed in this area, it will be much easier to run from the temptation.
What kind of words do you use? How do your words impact others?
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