I was challenged to report an instance of sacrificial praise in a group recently….maybe I’m the odd man (woman) out, the one person that perceives those words from Hebrews 13:15 strangely opposed to the interpretation of most.  Maybe painful life circumstances have colored my view.  It is good, no doubt about it to be thankful, to praise God for his hand of blessing, to be sure.  It is always good daily to thank Him, and praise Him for His abundant provisions, for family, safety, friends, church, physical well being etc. 

It is my perception, my personal experience, my opinion…sacrificial praise with lips of thanksgiving goes further, draws from a well far deeper, then the everyday experience.  Sacrificial praise demands a look past the comfort zone.  It steps in at the border of pleasant, it begins at the …”but God”, and continues through to the “what if”.  Not to shatter your day’s worth of feeling on top of things, and all is well in your world, consider what the definition of sacrifice is.  Something that might be challenging to give up perhaps.  It’s not difficult to praise and thank God for those things that give us warm fuzzies.  Far more trying the task of giving up praise to our God and Father, our Creator God when it seems as though He has turned a deaf ear.  THAT is sacrificial praise.

And what is the content of that praise.  I am never grateful for pain of any description.  What I CAN be grateful for, is a gracious and merciful Heavenly Father that promises to be with me in the trial, to comfort me in the pain, to walk with me through the hardship, with the peace He supplies, the rest He that He gives. That is sacrificial praise.  Praising the One  who created me, who has a plan and a purpose for me, who knows it all from beginning to end, who gives strength in my weakness, joy in my most intense heartache, and on the other side of that event, is there with comfort and peace. 

But wait.  There’s more.

None of what He extends to me, in His grace and mercy, is just for my happiness.  That would be purposeless and shallow in the big picture.  All of what He gives is fulfillment of His plan for me from before I was even a thought.  And, for His name’s sake. Ps 23:3b   We lose sight of His underlying intent in the Life He gives us, once we agree to be His blood bought adopted child.  He spares us from ourselves, our selfish bent toward fulfilling our own purpose, for the greater purpose of honoring and glorifying Him, for His name’s sake. 

This is my personal thought on sacrificial praise with lips of thanksgiving.  I AM grateful for every good thing every single day holds.  But the sacrifice comes when  those things are not.  When my comfort is gone, when the path is dark and twisted, when nothing familiar is in view, then…what I have to offer IS sacrifice, I sacrifice the very things I hold dear, to praise and thank the One Who knows me best and loves me most, that He is accomplishing His will and way in me, in spite of the pain and hardship.  That’s what sacrifice is.