The Wonderful Affects of Praise, Thanksgiving & Obedience

Today is a world-changing day! Today is the beginning of the election caucuses and primaries to determine our next President of the United States. We are in a fight for our country and our very lives. I believe our only hope to have God's mercy on us and our country is to call on God in humility, confessing our sins, and turning from them, and completely committing ourselves into His hands knowing that He is the only one Who can help heal us and our country. The twentieth chapter of II Chronicles tells of King Jehoshaphat, the God-fearing king of Judah, who was surrounded with armies of surrounding nations beyond the Dead Sea. These armies were marching against his army and people. In verse three and four it tells us, "Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself determinedly, as his vital need, to seek the Lord; he proclaimed a fast in all of Judah. And Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; even out of all of the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord, yearning for him with all their desire. Then King Jehoshaphat stood before the assembly of Judah and prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (Amp.) God is our only hope to see a healing in our country, from the President to the lowliest. God gives us a promise of this in II Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Notice God said, “If My people,” speaking to Believers (those who trust only in His saving blood). After sincerely doing these things mentioned in this scripture (God knows our hearts), then we can be assured if God said it, He will do it – in His time and in His way. Because we can trust in His promises, we can even now praise Him, even before we see the results. Praising God for Who He is, and thanking Him for what He has done and will do, is the most powerful weapon against all the forces of our enemy, Satan, because it brings faith alive in our hearts (and Satan cannot stand against the faith of the believer). After you have put on all the other spiritual armor, as told about in Eph.6:10-18, verse 16 says to, “Lift up over all the covering shield of faith;” and praise and thanksgiving (with obedience) are the tangible parts of faith. Faith is believing the reality of things you cannot see now, but have the assurance that the reality will come in its time, so, in the mean-time, you obey now what you have been instructed to do by God’s Word – and God cannot lie. Faith in God is the assurance that “if God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” Therefore, I can trust Him, I can expect Him and have the confidence that he will do what He says He will do. So I have hope in His trustworthiness, in His integrity and in His faithfulness. So I can praise and thank God now, even though I don’t yet see that for which I am anticipating - His promise to “heal our land;” if I will “humble myself, pray, seek His face, and turn from my wicked (wrong) ways.” By praising God, thanking Him, having faith in Him, trusting and obeying Him, I and all of God’s people can see the answer to our prayers, and that will magnify and glorify God to all who are watching.