By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name
Hebrews 13 v 15
After the final and ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the blemishless sacrifice that has the potential of absolving all mankind of all our sins, there is only one sacrifice that is pleasing and acceptable to the Lord God: the sacrifice of praise to God continually. We need to remember all the Lord’ s goodness to us all our lives and give thanks to Jesus. The words , “ By Him” implies that it is by the grace of Jesus that our praise, worship and thanksgiving is acceptable and pleasing to God. We need to cultivate and maintain an attitude of gratitude to the Lord for our personal salvation as well as a multitude of blessings that it entails. We need to also develop a sense of awe at His ineffable greatness and glory, evidenced in nature, in the gospel, in history and in our lives. This is what will make each of us a living sacrifice on the altar of God. It will fill our lives with the awesome presence of the Lord for He delights to be present where He is worshipped. Our bodies become His tabernacle, His church. It will also fill our lives with immeasurable and inexplicable joy and infinite strength and spiritual fervour. Whatever blessings we have will be further multiplied. For Jesus took the five bread and seven fishes from the boy. Once He gave thanks to the Lord, it multiplied to fill many baskets and feed the multitude of ten thousand.
It will be a good exercise to each day focus on one particular facet of God’s goodness and one blessing that the Lord has endowed us with. Six days of the week we can focus on six different facets of God’s character, His plan of salvation and His blessings and on the seventh day, we can praise the Lord all day for all of these facets and blessings. Jesus healed ten lepers but only one returned to thank and appreciate Him. Each of us should be like the returning leper who receives the approbation of the Lord. When we do so we will be like the glorious lily that has six petals. We will be like the dew to Israel, like a cedar of Lebanon that sends down its roots deep, whose young shoots grow. Our splendour will be like an olive tree, our fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. We will blossom like a vine and our renown will be like the wine from Lebanon. The reference to “roots” means that this continual act of worship in our inner being is deep and hidden from the eye.
The “fruit of our lips” implies that not only should we do the “ root activity” or inwardly and continually thank and worship the Lord for His goodness towards us, we should also express in words our love, appreciation, awe, adoration, admiration, gratitude towards the Lord. The fruit of the Holy Spirit, namely love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control should be in evidence in the words we speak. There should be a constant intermingling of the fruit of the Spirit and the words of our lips. Our normal conversation should be interspersed with such fruit offering to the Lord. Like organ music or instruments enhance the beauty of our songs, when our conversation is salted with wisdom and grace, it enhances the beauty of our worship. Indeed, we need to worship the Lord not in the ugliness of our own context but in the beauty of His holiness, power and grace.
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