Say

Verse 3 of Psalm 66 says, “Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you’.” (NIV)

I was struck by the words, “say to God”. This is basically telling us to tell God how great He is. At first I thought this was an unusual thing to say. The Psalms are filled with words like sing praises to Him, tell of His works, and shout for joy, all of which are done when we praise God. When we do those things we are telling God and others about His goodness and the good things He has done. God is good and will do good things for us, which we are to thank and praise Him for doing. However, the specific instruction of “say to God” seemed a little stronger than a suggestion but makes sense when you think about it.

Think of it like this: We all want to do good things for our families and our jobs because we want to show goodness. Many times those deeds go unnoticed. They are still appreciated, but you don’t always get recognition or a thank you for what you’ve done. That tends to make us a little slower to act next time because we feel under appreciated. We don’t stop doing the good things, but we wonder if they are noticed. We like the praise. The same is true for God. He’s not going to stop being good to us if we don’t thank Him and praise Him for what He does. However, praising Him gets our eyes off of ourselves and our circumstances and focuses us back on Him and His plans for us. Even when things are tough, find something good where you can give God praise. We will survive and continue on without praise, but we thrive more when we get praise. Choose to thrive today by giving God praise!