PSALM 103 VERSE 1 - "MORE THAN 10000 REASONS"

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy Name! (Psalm 103:1)
We know from the Westminster Confession of our Faith that the  "Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever". This definition of one of our primary charges as Christians comes out of these two following verses:

1 Corinthians 10:31.Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory.

Romans 11:36. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. 

The Puritans were some of the greatest Christian thinkers who ever lived and their writings and exhortations set a standard for understanding the Bible which few in the public arena attain to, in these final days. One of them was Thomas Watson who wrote about what "glorifying God" really means. Watson writes "To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts, and, to have a venerable esteem of him. Psalm 92:8. "Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore." Psalm 97:9, "Thou art exalted far above all gods." There is in God all that may draw forth both wonder and delight; there is a constellation of all beauties; he is prima causa [the first cause], the original and spring-head of being, who sheds a glory upon the creature."

The same God we are meant to, should be and will continue to Glorify, as described by Watson, is the same God we must "Bless"!  You and I glorify that which we admire, adore, admit to worshiping and are full of affection towards. We do so because the object of this amazing love is WORTHY...and more of this adoration. Such an intense and emotional love ought to be first and foremost dedicated to the only and God - Yahweh - Who art in Heaven.

We glorify and BLESS, praise, thank, give our best to the Lord in spirit and in truth.  We do so not half-heartedly but with every fiber of our spiritual and physical being. The greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul. That means every fiber of our being, every level of the multi-floor building which is our humanity, has to be in sync with the Great God of the Universe. Our redeemed spirit and the Holy Spirit should be so integrated in sanctification that would inner-self sings out His praises!

Everything inside of us; everything around us; everything we say and believe we are should not run off on our own. Instead, the essence of who we are have to understand the God of the Bible, His many wonderful Attributes, should speak of God, with absolutely no daylight between us. It should be said of us, when whenever we encounter someone and depart after speaking with them, that it can be said of us that "we have been with Jesus". This has to be our waking song and the praise from our souls, all day long. Amen

THY WILL BE DONE: PRAYER - "BE POSITIVE"

God loves the Christian who appears to have swallowed a dozen lemons as much as He loves the Joyful happy warrior who approaches the Throne enthusiastically, day after day!  The former’s approach to prayer is often filled with fear and trepidation to the point where the prayer life is stunted,  fellowship stymied and active relationship with the Father, stayed. The joyful happy warrior however sees his/her waking up in the morning as an opportunity to jump at, in order to meet and greet the Lord daily!

Both conditions define Christians who pursue and those who pout. Who is God more prone to respond to? Both, because He looks at the heart and the request which the Holy Spirit reconfigures, according to Scripture. The edge that the joyful person has is abundance….joy unspeakable, joy unfathomable…and why? Because the Joy of the Lord is your Strength (Nehemiah 8:10b). The latter is the domain of the praying Christian who approaches our Maker with faith, gratitude, humility, love and respect. In other words, a combination of all of these attributes and a willingness to be in His Presence in proactive intercession brings forth fruit and fuel which are both priceless and without comparison. A positive attitude in prayer becomes the Christian as it simply glows off the countenance!  

Consider this: Moses’ brother Aaron was the first official High Priest of the Faith (Melchizedek is the first ever on earth). Aaron’s famous Aaron blessing is direct from God and the portion which pertains here is  “The Lord bless you and keep you…..the Lord make His Face to shine upon you, and give you shalom (peace): Numbers 6:26. There is no more powerfully positive blessing and prayer than this. You can’t teach “positive” we just have to come to a full realization of how great a salvation we have, what that salvation cost Jesus Christ and how incredibly blessed we are to the point that we cannot help but fall at His Feet and even at the mention of His Name. There are many who reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ and simply call Him Savior. Savior, He is. However, if Jesus is NOT the Lord of your life, then something/somebody else is and there is no way there can be a complete relationship with God.

As always, Scripture is our road map. How we pray and stay positive is to start from the foundational truths of the Word, remain in the Word, pray the Word and thereby become fully reliant on the Word.  There is something to acknowledging and praising God in prayer as soon as you set yourself to pray in His Holy Name. “Bless the Lord oh my soul, all that is within me, bless His Holy Name” (Psalm 103:1) Think of the power that underlies this statement which the Holy Spirit placed there for our instruction!

Let us begin to work from the very heart of this verse for a minute, which is “all that is within me” (Psalm 103:1a). This is pro-active sacrificial worship straight from the very depths of who we, as 100% committed followers of Christ, is foundational in having a positive attitude of prayer. When you and I approach the Lord, with expectation and when you approach Abba Father with total surrender, you and I are operating under the Scriptural Definition of Faith. This is right out of Hebrews 11:1 “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for (expectation), the evidence of things not seen”!

Now about this “evidence” – those who are saved, redeemed, rejuvenated, born-again – we HAVE the evidence! He is the Holy Spirit! He is the SAME, the VERY SAME Holy Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead. He, Holy Spirit, IS the evidence! If this is not understand, we have more work to do to teach Him. So back to Psalm 103:a “ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME”? Well, all that is within you and I - is the Holy Spirit! 

With that in mind, how can we NOT be positive in our Prayer Life?! Impossible. The equation is simple: Holy Spirit (the Evidence within) and the Expectation equals dynamic fuel. This powers us to the state of being positive in prayer!

Next: "Be Practical"