What does a heart that is after God look like? It turns its pleas into a praise. It turns over its source of anxiety to the faithfulness of God.

We all get anxious at times. Our circumstances make us feel trapped and stuck. We do not know what to do. We are obviously not in control. So, we go to God pleading for His mercy. That is good and right. But we must not stop there. We must go on to praise Him and trust that He will come through for us.

When David was being pursued by his enemy, Saul, he wrote a psalm pleading his case. As expected, he asks God to show mercy to him. (Ps. 57:1). But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to praise and exalt. This, BEFORE, he gets delivered.

“My heart is steadfast, O God, 

my heart is steadfast!

I will sing and make melody!

Awake, my glory!”

Ps. 57:7-8

How different this is from most of us. We praise God and thank Him only when He does something good for us. But here, David praises God before He does something good. In other words, in David’s mind, God is God and worthy to be praised whether He delivers him or not. He obviously wants to be delivered. But even if He doesn’t, it doesn’t change the fact that God is worthy to be praised.

What if we praised God regardless of our circumstances. What if we praised God in good circumstances as well as in tough circumstances. What if our praise God did not depend on our subjective mood but on the objective reality of who God is?

Turn your pleas into praise.

PH