Praise changes things

It feels counterintuitive to the feelings that are plaguing your mind. Sometimes, it feels impossible with all the emotions circling around in your soul or the warfare you feel in your spirit.
The heaviness can be specific…triggered by something you can point out…and then other times, there’s just a weight or an intensity that you can’t shake or explain. Like a cloud covering that won’t pass + you’re desperate to see the sun again.
But in these times—when your flesh is crying out + your body wants to go one way or your anxiety wants to buy a ticket to the emotional rollercoaster that circles beneath that heaviness, refuse to let it.

Choosing to praise when you are struggling isn’t a placated way to walk in faith; it’s a real one. A necessary one. An honest one that recognizes that here isn’t home, hardship is part of it, and sometimes you just want to dip your head and hide out until it’s over.
Deciding to praise Him is the discipline to depend on the character of His heart when the ways of His hand confuse you. It’s choosing to actually wave the weapon in your hand that shuts back darkness, reveals His light, + ushers in new strength.

You can acknowledge the pain and praise Him in the same breath. It is a gratitude practice to state where you are and exclaim where you know He is taking you. It is courage to trust that the ground you’ve been plowing is fertile for growth, even when you feel like the harvest is distant or opposing forces have tried their best to make you give up.

Praise changes things. The hand of God is always moving, always making things happen, always molding you into the person who knows you need to be for what’s next. Praise allows for pressure to become preparation—spurring onward, eyes up to the Shepherd, heart secured in the One who holds tomorrow.

Life is HERE. You will never regret praising God for what He has done, is doing, + will do. He is trustworthy. Proclaiming truth when the weight feels heavy helps you keep lifting your feet—see that? The cloud covering doesn’t stay forever.

Keep going…

Now you see, the light was always bursting forth. In whatever it is you’re wrestling with, light is on its way.