Praising God Unconditionally

On my way home from work today, God really convicted me through Matt Redman's song, Your Grace Finds Me.   The bridge of the song is...

"I am breathing in your grace

And breathing out your praise

I am breathing in your grace

Forever, I'll be..."  

This made me think about how some of those words are unconditional, while others are a choice. 

If we have accepted the gift that Christ has given us through his death on the cross for our sins, we will always breath in his grace.  We do not have to ask for salvation daily.  We ask God to be the Lord of our lives, and through Jesus, it is finished.  He just is.  We get to partake in the joy of breathing his grace in with every single breath.  It is unconditional.  

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, 

for his compassions never fail.  

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.  

God's mercies and compassions never fail and are new every morning.  All we breath in is grace.  The natural result should be exhaling praise to a God who deserves all of it and more.  

It makes sense, but is that the case? 

We prefer to look to our emotion rather than truth.  We tend to look at our current situation, rather than what is truly important.  When I think of someone who knew how to praise God regardless of his circumstance, I think of David.  David knew how to praise God and David had varying degrees of happiness and torment.  

• David was annointed as king through Samuel by God in 1 Samuel 16 even though he was the youngest and least likely of Jesse's 8 sons.  
• David entered King Saul's service and gained a great deal of favor with Saul, becoming one of his armor bearers.  
• David had faith that enabled a boy to take down a giant super soldier with a sling shot.   
• David became like a brother to Saul's son and heir.  
• David was promised one of Saul's daughters, and married her.
• David had huge success in battle and was loved by all.  
• Saul grew fear and jealousy of David.
• Saul pursued David and attempted to kill him on multiple occasions.
• Saul forced David into hiding and on the run for a couple of years.
• David had to beg for bread.
• David eventually became king, only to find out that his best friend had been killed.  
• David had enemies L and R trying to overthrow him.  Even his own son.  
• He lost a child.
• He had all sorts of lady troubles (as a result of his own sin- not perfect).
• David often wrote about feeling of abandonment and heartache in many of the Psalms that he wrote.  

HOWEVER...

David knew how to praise the LORD

Those psalms that began with a tormented man, ended with a vertical focus on a God bigger than his situation.  Many of his psalms, were just praises in their entirety.  David was not perfect by any means, but David was able to see the big picture.  It is not our situation.  We are constantly breathing in grace, and that should result in praise 100% of the time.  

How that praise looks can vary. 

Sometimes we praise God on the mountaintop. 

Sometimes we praise him through dance.

While other times we praise him with our faces on the floor, because that is all that we can muster. 

Emotion, situation, and posture are irrelevant.  What is relevant is that God deserves it!!  If you look at the end of the song lyric, it ends with "Forever, I'll be...".  This forever piece is looking to heaven.  That is what we are going to do.  We are going to be at a huge party.  I am not capable of imagining what that will look like exactly, but I do know the main attraction.  We are going to be praising our King.  

Why wait to praise him indefinitely?

Lets stop looking to the temporal and decide to look to the eternal.

Let's begin now with each and every breath.