Praiseworthy

Life isn’t getting any easier in these viral times.

Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the governor announced this week that students will not return to their classrooms for the remainder of the academic year. He also issued a list of businesses and public venues that must close as well as restrictions for those remaining open.

I’d rejoice at the light traffic in the area, only there’s no place to go. Besides, I’m supposed to stay home anyway.

When I’m tempted to whine about my hairstylist closing her doors for 30 days (I may resemble a skunk/sheepdog hybrid by the time she reopens), I remember the thousands—the millions nationwide—who are trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage without a paycheck.

Yes, life is tough in the spring of 2020. There’s only one thing all of us can do, whether sick or well, young or old.

Pray.

So, here I am. Not a theologian. Not a missionary. Not a renowned Christian author. Just someone who would like to pray with you.

One of the blessings of Mr. Pettit’s career in the U.S. Air Force was the opportunity to engage with a variety of Christian communities. During his assignment in Nebraska I belonged to a neighborhood chapter of Moms in Touch.

Each week we gathered at someone’s home to pray for our children and their schools. Although we were friends, the focus was on prayer, not fellowship. We dove straight in and prayed aloud for each child and his or her teacher.

We used this acronym to guide us as we moved from person to person around the circle: ACTS. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Adoration. Praise.

It’s not difficult for me to show gratitude to God. If I rummage through my life for thirty seconds, I’ll uncover at least a hundred gifts He’s lavished on me. But I’ve come to realize that gratitude is about what God does.

Praise is about Who He is.

I struggled for years with God’s demand that we praise Him because I assumed that He was like me, only bigger. (Pause to laugh or gasp if you must.) From childhood on, I’ve needed approval and validation, a literal or figurative pat on the head. So, the requirements for praise found in the Bible perplexed me. Was God telling me to reassure Him, to compliment Him on His perfection?

I found an answer on another stop on our military journey. Our adult Sunday School class at our church in Columbus, Mississippi, was taught by a rotation of its members. When my turn rolled around, we were deep into a study of Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis. And we had just arrived at the chapter entitled “A Word About Praising”.

God doesn’t always deliver neon signs.

But when He does…wow.

As I taught that day, I felt God using Lewis’s words to patiently guide me to as much of His truth as my mind and heart could handle.

Lewis points out that praising God is the only appropriate response to His grandeur. “He is that Object to admire which (or, if you like, to appreciate which) is simply to be awake, to have entered the real world; not to appreciate which is to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all.” (page 92) Failing to appreciate God’s awesome nature robs us of the chance to be fully alive.

Lewis goes on to note that praise springs naturally from love and joy. “I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.” (page 94) He adds on page 95 that “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment…the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”

I love the way Lewis summarizes this point on page 97: “Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

How can the creation—you and me—decline such an incredible offer from our Creator?

Here’s where we go interactive. I’ll start the prayer of praise in our virtual circle and you, dear readers, are welcome to join in. You may post your prayers on my Facebook page by clicking the Facebook icon in the top right corner of this screen.

Let us pray.

Dear God, I don’t have the words I need to describe You. Your love is an eternal spring, bringing life to the desert. You created everything, seen and unseen. Your Hands set distant galaxies spinning, yet You delight in forming the tiny fingers of an unborn child.. Your eyes are always upon Your creation, watching and protecting, guiding and correcting. You are the Mighty Father, the Gracious Savior and the Indwelling Comforter, and there is none like You.