My mother died on April 30, 2024. Shortly after her death, I was sitting in a Sunday church service and heard a quiet voice whisper in my heart, "Don't stifle my praise." I immediately knew the voice was The Holy Spirit. Biblically, I agreed with the voice, but emotionally, I couldn't process the pain of losing my mother and praising God through the pain. What's that ole saying "easier said than done", or "you truly don't know until you experience it for yourself". The pain is real, and so is His praise. When I sit in church or in a complicated emotional situation, I often remember these words: "Don't stifle my praise."
One day, I was diving into Psalm 51 and noticed verses 14 and 15 in 3 versions: KJV, NLT, and CSB. Let's hone in on the B part of verse 14. "O God, though God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness." Okay and NLT version states 14b "O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness". So, I looked up the words shall sing in the Blue Letter Bible app. The Hebrew definitions that stood out were cry aloud and shout for joy. So interesting! I kept reading verse 15 of the same chapter, and the NLT version stood out the best. It states, "Unseal my lips, o Lord, that my mouth may praise you". So many memories and scriptures began flooding in my mind, but the most important memory was sitting in church during that emotionally charged season where the Holy Spirit eloquently said "don't stifle my praise". Next, I googled the word stifle, and according to the dictionary, stifle means to restrain a reaction or stop oneself from acting on emotion, i.e., praising in pain!!!
WOW! Right, or is it just me?
My Mind was blown when God allowed this revelation to become so clear. The Bible is truly incredible. Devotions are fine, but devotion time in the word is tremendous. Worship over worry is necessary because Worship is Warfare! My prayer for you and for me is, Lord, teach me(us) how to properly war in worship in the name of Jesus. My charge to you is, "Don't Stifle His Praise!"
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