Pilot ~ Photographer ~ Scuba Diver

In recent days, I’ve come to realize that there is a very effective antidote to counteract the “pain”

emotionally we experience when we suffer.  Whether a divorce, the loss of employment, or the

deeper loss of a love one—in our case, our only child.  It is the “serum” entitled – Praise!

 

A few weeks after our tragic loss, I was asked to speak for the youth service in church. In my

introductory texts, {Psalm 22:3; Isaiah 57:15} I found a correlation between these concepts

which brought me much comfort.

 

1. Holiness

2. Praise

3. Spirit of Contrition/Humility

 

In essence these texts say, a holy God dwells/inhabits the praises of his people to revive the spirit

of humility/ contrition. Then I went on to the rest of Psalm 22—the Psalm of the Cross. I brought

out passages dealing with the suffering of Christ on Calvary and how He relates to us, for He was

suffering "as us" forsaken of God.

 

When we praise God in song, prayer or even in our thoughts—the Holy Spirit lifts us above the repressive grip grief can bring. It brings hope and strength to endure one more day, one more hour, even one more minute.

 

Notice Isaiah 61:1-3: Where Christ was anointed by the Spirit “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” When we permit God to grant us this gift of praise and thank Him—verbally—for the oil which ‘soothes’ our hearts in our mourning, a supernatural experience occurs.  We are ‘bolstered up’ and can actually thank King Jesus for embracing that grief in us.  The suffering that seems like a mountain at times about to crush us, appears to dissipate before our eyes and we have joy.

 

This has truly become an effective antidote to me. Thus, as it has been said:  “The beauty and riches of the Word [of God] have a transforming influence on mind and character.”  COL 132

 

I encourage you today, to take passages of praise in Scripture and claim by faith the power praise can have over the emotions which suffering and grief cause.

 

It will do wonders to your life, each day.