9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. 10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness. 11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments. 12 Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, 13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation. 14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Is God really our guide? Do we honestly and openly read his word with the thought in mind of following his will? What about when we read something in the Bible and we really don’t like God’s way? If God is to be our guide for ever and ever, even to the end, then we must allow him to guide us. This means there will be changes in our lives because his will (revealed in his word) will reveal to us how we can become more like him. It is this kind of attitude and the life that follows that truly brings praise to God. There is no greater honor given anyone than for another to use that person as a pattern for their own life. This is also true of God as we follow his pattern. This transformation begins in our minds and in our hearts.

For too many, worship is when people come together in a building and go thru some ritual. Their religion does not go outside this building. While it is important to attend worship services (after all, this is God’s idea), when this is the sum of our service we are sadly lacking. We must recognize God’s sovereign right to tell us what to do and how to live all the time, wherever we are. Jesus said that true worship must be from the heart.

To verbalize our praise to God is important. The more we do this, whether in speaking or in song, the more it becomes real to us. We can speak to God or to ourselves in our minds (with sincere heart) but to actually voice this praise has a greater impact on our hearts. It also encourages and motivates others who may hear us. When we actually say something out loud it increases our commitment to that spoken word. When we make commitments to God aloud and when we praise him aloud, we will be more determined to keep our word than if we just think these things. We must praise God in our lives, in our words and in all we do.

O God, please help me to be more committed to serving you in my mind, in my will and in my life. Please fill me with your Spirit so that I may be more like you in all I am. Help me to know your love and your purity so that I may imitate them in my life. Give me compassion toward others and keep me from being judgmental. Thank you for your love. In Jesus name I pray.

May God bless each of us as we honor and praise him in our lives.