Holy, holy, holy

I’ve gotta start here.  Revelation 4 and 5 have been on my heart and lips so much in the last year.  Sometime during the summer of 2011 I began getting this cool picture from God about praise.

True confession:  I have always struggled to praise God.  I think He’s really cool, and I thank Him for stuff all the time, but straight-up praise is tough for me.  It always felt kind of phoney somehow.

Here’s what helped me get a new take on it:  People long for a touch of the supernatural.  All people.

Little kids like to pretend that they can magically accomplish things like flying or creating chocolate donuts out of thin air.  (I sometimes like that second idea myself.)

Teenagers and adults consult their horoscopes, dabble in occult practices with tarot cards and play with ouija boards.

Christians love the idea of receiving a prophecy about something God has lined up for them in the future.

Human beings like power, and we like the idea of tapping into a supernatural source of power.  We long for that connection because we were made to be in relationship – intimate relationship – with the God of the universe Who is vastly more supernatural than we can really fathom.  There’s a hunger in our natural selves to be supernatural.

Okay, here’s where the praise thing clicked in for me.  What do we know from Revelation 4 and 5?

We know that in the throne room of God (think: “Supernatural Central”) the constant sound is this:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.  You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being….You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased for God men from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth….Worthy is the Lamb, Who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!…To Him Who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever.

And that’s when it hit me.  When I say those words (out loud or in the privacy of my own heart and head), I am touching the supernatural.  I am guaranteed, absolutely, no-questions-asked, for-sure praying in agreement with God because I am speaking the words of the throne room itself.  I may not know specifically how to pray about the solution to a particular situation….but I have power over it anyway when I begin to declare the Lordship of Jesus over it and everything else in life.

I started memorizing the straight-up-no-chaser praise passages in Revelation (beginning with the section in italics above) and incorporated it into walks I take, or time behind the wheel of the car, or the time I spend in the shower conditioning my hair.  And it’s awesome.  It’s easy to praise.  It’s exciting to praise.  It dilutes the acid of fear in my stomach when I am feeling overwhelmed.  It clears my cluttered mind when someone knocks me out of my productive groove with a crisis that must be fixed yesterday.  It has become my go-to place of prayer multiple times a day.  It is teaching me to pray His will rather than wasting time, emotion and breath praying out of my feelings when they are scrozzled.

What do you think?  Praise much?