A Heart That is Honest, Grateful, & Full of Praise

It’s been said, “misery loves company”. This statement is actually very true.  What we focus on is what we attract. A misery focused mind attracts more misery.  This truth also applies to positive focus!  When we focus on positives, we attract positives in our lives.  Today I want to spend some time in a section of the bible that teaches how important our focus is.

The principle we will see is simple: He inhabits our praise so when we focus on praise we attract His life giving solutions in our lives.

II Chronicles 20

1 It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

² Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.

³ And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

⁴ And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

⁵ And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,

⁶ And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

⁷ Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

⁸ And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying,

⁹ If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

¹⁰ And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;

¹¹ Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

¹² O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

¹³ And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

¹⁴ Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

¹⁵ And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

¹⁶ To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.

¹⁷ Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

¹⁸ And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

¹⁹ And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

²⁰ And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

²¹ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever.

²² And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

²³ For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

²⁴ And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

²⁵ And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.

²⁶ And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.

²⁷ Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

²⁸ And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord.

²⁹ And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰ So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.

There are three keys that we can learn from that I want to point out from this  section:

Honesty
Gratitude
Praise

Jehosephat and all of Judah went before God.  First in praise as they acknowledge His goodness and were grateful for their history, then they got real honesty.  “Hey, this land that you so lovingly gave us that we are grateful for, thanks by the way, yeah um it’s about to get invaded and we are not strong enough to protect it on our own.”  It’s okay to be honest. Actually it is a must!  If we want to really get to the point of deliverance we must be honest with ourselves and with God.  In their honesty they were also grateful.  I believe that gratitude is the key to seeing and hearing solutions from above.  A grateful mind attracts light and simply put, He is light!

Another key they demonstrated here was praise..  They even began the battle in praise.  Ironically the Ammon and Moab word for praise is the word “fire”.  How amazing is that?  When Jehosephat told them to Praise God, they did and the enemy fired on themselves.

If I want God to take on the fight in my life, I must confidently go to Him with an honest heart, a grateful heart, and heart full of praise.  When I enter into His gates with thanksgiving I am worshipping my way through the battle knowing that He, who never leaves me, will bring the victory.

What appeared to be their end was actually a great victory for them as they took three days to recover all of the wealth that the enemy left on the battle field!

Psalms 22:3 says the “God inhabits th praise of His people”

Inhabits is the Hebrew word hyssop-dwell, set, enthrone. It’s a solid word! He who’s thrown is the heavens chooses to infuse Himself in the praise of His people. Do you want God to infuse Himself into a situation in your life? Do you want His presence enthroned there? Then use that voice of yours to start giving praise!

^{I Thessalonians 5:18}

 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

In what?

In everything!

“But you don’t understand, my kids are…my husband is…my coworkers are….”

“Shhhh”, in everything give thanks. Gratitude in the storm brings Divine presents into the storm! He will infuse it!

Romans 8:28

 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I either believe that all things work for my good or I don’t…it’s that simple!

If I believe all things work together for good in my life then no matter what is working in my life, it’s going to work for good! So in the hard part, in the easy part, in the scary lion roaring freeze temptation part, I am gonna give THANKS-PRAISE because I believe that when I give thanks He inhabits it..dwells there…infuses me there!

Have you ever read II Corinthians 9:8?

II Corinthians9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (KJV)

Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything —every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. (TPT)

The first sentence says it all, “God is able!”

There are keys to receiving from God and one of them is “God’s ability equals His willingness.” Also stated if He is able He is willing if He is willing, He is able.

He is able!

Who is able?

He is!

To do what?

Make All grace bound, abundantly flow to and through, and/or surround you!

Let’s talk on that grace for a second.  I play a game called pickle ball. It’s a combination of tennis and racketball and a little ping pong but whatever the combination it is really fun and can get competitive, if you want.  Over the past year I have learned something about myself through playing this game.  I have spent a lifetime playing or living as the defense.  In sports, the defense protects what they already have.  The offense is constantly moving forward in an effort to gain more. If you want to win the game you have to have both but points are only scored in the offense mode.  My point is, I had a mindset that I was worthy of protecting but not worthy of winning because I didn’t play the game or life with an offense mindset.  I would give away points because of this, I wouldn’t take points that I was capable of taking. Grace says I’m worthy!

The word grace can be defined as “the privilege win!”  God is able to shower me with the win!  I am worthy of the win because He said so.

Let’s conclude with this:

In everything I can give thanks because I believe that in everything He is working it together for my good. No matter what. I will be honest with Him, be grateful to Him, and give praise because as He inhabits my praise. He brings in that effervescing, overflowing, super conqueror presence that allows me to win. Even if it may not look like it at that moment.  I hold the line, I send out the “Levites” to sing praise before the battle and I expect Him to bring victory!  I attract His results in my situation because I focus on Him, His words of truth and His ability and willingness to overflow Grace to me. He inhabits my praise. So when I focus on praise I attract His life giving solutions..