PRISON TO PRAISE
I’m writing this message as much for myself as for you! Since my wife went to be with the Lord over seven years ago, I have spent a lot of time on my own and recently I have caught myself making heavy weather of my daily life. I would wake up worrying - when really, I had nothing to worry about - and praying prayers like “Oh Lord help me” (I surely need help - we all do), but it was heavy. It was then that I realised I was thinking and praying the wrong way. Why don’t I just praise the Lord instead? And as soon as I did, I felt better.
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As a young man, like millions of others, I read a book by Merlin Carothers: Prison to Praise. In it he tells the story of how as a 19-year-old, serving in the US Army he had got into trouble but through the prayers and witness of his grandparents had come to the Lord, eventually becoming an Army Chaplain.
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He tells many inspiring stories in his international best-selling book that became a Christian classic, but the title comes from a revelation he got from the Lord about praising God in all circumstances - even in the most difficult times in life.
He explains that in a very similar way to my own recent feelings: “Getting up in the morning had been an infirmity for me. God told me to take it and reverse it from pain into joy, and when I did, the power of Jesus and His joy came upon me. I memorised and said over and over to myself the verse from I Thessalonians 5:16–18:
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‘Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In EVERYTHING give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’"
As an Army Chaplain many people came to him in the most unhappy circumstances, and he taught them the same principle. Here is one such story:
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"One day an Officer Candidate came to my office. He wept for a long time. "Sir, you must help me. My wife has been asking for a divorce. Her lawyer has just sent me the papers to sign. I just can't keep on with the Officer Candidate program. I don't even want to stay in the Army. Please help me."
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"I know just how to get your problem solved. Let's kneel down and thank God that your wife wants a divorce." He didn't understand. Carefully we went over the Scriptures together. At last he decided he might as well try it. We knelt together and he prayed, turning the whole situation over to God and thanking Him for having allowed it to happen.
When he returned to his unit he was so shaken emotionally that they gave him the rest of the day off. He went to his bed and lay there, repeating over and over, "Thank You, Lord, that my wife wants a divorce. I surely don't understand it, but Your Word says I should thank You in all things, so I'll do it." All day long he thought the same things over and over. That night he couldn't sleep, so he went on thanking God. The next day he went through training in a daze. "Lord, You know I don't understand, but I thank You anyhow."
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That evening he was sitting in the mess hall having dinner. As he was eating, it suddenly hit him. "Lord, You really must know what is better for me, much more than I do. I know all of this must be Your will. Thank You, Lord; now I understand!" At that moment another candidate tapped him on the shoulder and told him to come to the telephone. In all the weeks he'd been a candidate, no one had ever wanted him on the phone. When he lifted the receiver there was someone weeping on the other end. "Honey, can you ever forgive me? I don't want a divorce!"
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Jesus didn't promise to change the circumstances around us, but He did promise great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things. The very act of praise releases the power of God into a set of circumstances and enables God to change them if this is His design. Very often it is our attitudes that hinder the solution of a problem. God is sovereign and could certainly cut across our wrong thought patterns and attitudes. But His perfect plan is to bring each of us into fellowship and communion with Him, and so He allows circumstances and incidents which will bring our wrong attitudes to our attention.
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The Chaplain wrote:
“I have come to believe that the prayer of praise is the highest form of communion with God, and one that always releases a great deal of power into our lives. Praising Him is not something we do because we feel good; rather it is an act of obedience. Often the prayer of praise is done in sheer teeth-gritting willpower; yet when we persist in it, somehow the power of God is released into us and into the situation. At first in a trickle perhaps, but later in a growing stream that finally floods us and washes away the old hurts and scars.
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Some have asked me if this principle of praise isn't just another way to talk about the power of positive thinking. Far from it. Praising God for every circumstance does not mean we close our eyes to the difficulties. In his letter to the Philippians Paul says to worry about nothing, but "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
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When we praise God, we thank Him for our situation, not in spite of it. We are not trying to avoid our dilemmas. Rather Jesus is showing us a way to overcome them. Praise is not another way of bargaining with the Lord. We don't say, "Now we've praised You in the middle of this mess, so get us out of it!"
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God is calling us to praise Him, and the highest form of praise is the one Paul exhorts us to give in Hebrews 13:15:
"By (Christ) therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."
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The sacrifice of praise is offered when all is darkness around us. It is offered of a heavy heart, unto God because He is God and Father and Lord. As we begin to praise Him, His Holy Spirit begins to fill our beings more and more. To continually praise Him means a steady decreasing of self and an increase of the presence of Christ within us, until with Peter we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
I will bless the Lord at all times:
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
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O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
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Psalm 34 1-3
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