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Worship, Praise and Thanksgiving
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- Category: Blog 14 (worship)
- Published on Sunday, 01 January 2012 23:28
- Written by Super User
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The words thanksgiving, praise and worship are usually used interchangeably by those in or out of church, but they have three completely different meanings. The Bible admonishes everyone to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). Anyone can thank God. As a matter of fact, giving thanks needs no understanding of how good the one being thanked is. If someone holds a door for you, it doesn’t matter what kind of person they are, we can still thank them for the kind gesture of holding the door for us. We can thank for any reason.
The Bible admonishes for everything that has breath to praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6). This means that trees can praise God, birds can praise their Creator, dogs and cats can praise God, and of course people can praise the Lord. Praise is only possible to those who know something good about the one they are praising. The same way we can praise a star athlete or singer because of how good of a performer they are, we can praise God for making a world for us to live in and air to breathe. Praise denotes some kind of movement or some kind of action. The many Hebrew words that translate as praise can mean everything from lifting our hands, clapping our hands, dancing before the Lord, shouting unto God with a voice of triumph and other actions. We can praise with a dance or with sing a song unto God.
Although anyone can thank God and anything or anyone can praise God, worship denotes the need for a relationship with God. With worship we are offering God our love and adoration. We offer our obedience to Him and His Word (Genesis 22:5). Worship is what God has been looking for those who will worship in spirit (human spirit) and in truth (John 4:23-24).