From Rabbi Jack...
The other morning, I had a hard time getting out of bed and just did not have it in me to take our normal time to praise the Lord and pray. However, the song "We bring the sacrifice of praise," kept running through my mind and I found myself singing it aloud over and over again. Then it dawned on me, praising God is sometimes a sacrifice!
Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
In the Hebrew Scriptures (Torah), we continually read about the Israelites having to bring sacrifices to the Lord. We know that these were not for the purpose of appeasing an angry God, but rather offerings to Him for various purposes, sin being one of them. However, when we think about it, having to bring these offerings was a sacrifice for the people bringing them. God required only the best and the unblemished to be brought to Him for offerings. Knowing human nature, herein lies the sacrifice. Normally we give our old discarded things to the poor, things that we no longer like or that are out of style or worn-out; we bought a new appliance so we donate or give away the old one. We always save the best and newest for ourselves.
Sometimes we just do not feel like praying, and we just do not have it in us to praise the Lord, but these are the exact times God wants us to pray and praise Him. It is easy to pray and praise God when we are mentally up and on an emotional high and everything is going great in our lives, but then, that would not be a sacrifice. A true sacrifice is praying and praising God even though we do not feel up to it or worthy to do it.
Take a few minutes to listen to; "We bring the sacrifice of praise," Maranatha Music.
From Ellen...
Hi Ellen here…There is one thing that the Lord impresses on me daily and that is to shema, to listen! We do not have to be still to listen, we do not have to close our eyes to listen, we just need to train our minds and ears to listen. When we are praying there is one other avenue we need to train to listen and that is our hearts. All that said, one morning as Jack and I were praying before starting our day, I began to hear the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, so I began to listen. Now when the Holy Spirit speaks with us, at times it is difficult to share what we hear but that morning I was able to share with Jack. Here goes…we were praying in warfare mode and I heard laughing! The Holy Spirit was saying that even though Satan tries to disguise himself as a lamb there will be no harm. Why? Because he is so prideful that he needs to expose himself as Satan so he can take the credit for deceiving as a lamb. As I shared all that I was hearing and because of the incredible joy the Holy Spirit was bringing to us, Jack and I began laughing. So, when you pray be sure to shema because God has a lot to say!
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Rabbi Jack & Ellen
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