If you don’t get promoted?
If you don’t get healed?
If you don’t get blessed financially?
If you don’t see your loved one saved?
If you don’t get promoted?
If you don’t fall in love?
If your baby is sick?
If your church doesn’t experience revival?
If your new car gets totaled?
If you lose your hair?
If you are gossiped about?
If you are wrongfully persecuted?
If you have 3rd degree burns all over your body?
If you cannot walk?
If you lose your sight?
Would you still praise Him If you lost everything you have?
I believe the answer to this question is the reason we are not walking in the blessings we have prayed for. I believe our happiness and praise is based on what we get from God. It is conditional. We thank Him and praise Him for the things we “believe” He will do but when they do not come (when we want) we become complainers. So the level of love for Him is exposed when we do not get our way. This needs to change.
Blessings come from Righteousness and flow TO righteousness. When we begin to understand just how great God is and that we only get to heaven because of Him(Ephesians 2:8,9). Then we will learn true praise and thanksgiving and then be blessed.
God is not trying to bless US, but Jesus IN us.
I pray we learn true thankfulness and reverence so that our praise worthy of His majesty.
-For further reading, look at the book of Job. Job lost everything and in his pit he learned why he was there (last few chapters).
Blessings
Christian Credentials 
February 21, 2012 at 5:33 PM
No I would not praise Him initially (I do this more often than I should admit). I would be(have been) very peeved and do the “why God..” rant. Then, I would finally calm down and apologize and find something else to be thankful for.
February 23, 2012 at 12:55 AM
Wow, Mitchell, thank you for this post. Almost three years ago, my wonderful mother was diagnosed with cancer. I dealt with a lot of anger over it before I realized that I needed God to give me peace. So I asked for peace and strength, and then I really was able to praise Him! I think that sometimes we need God’s help to see through our own pain, and to praise Him through it. Ever hear the Casting Crowns song “Praise You in the Storm”? I think that’s what it comes down to, we just have to recognize that God is God, and He’ll see us through any storm.
Thank you for sharing!
February 24, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Hi CeCe, yes it can be difficult praising Him when He seems far away from our troubles.
The bible says that Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and when we are focused on Him and NOT our circumstances, WE experience peace.
Our prayer should be to ask God to show us how to live from the inside out, and not the outside in. If the Spirit is inside the believers, and the Spirits fruit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then wouldn’t we want that all the time? Instead we seek after the things of the world that only grant us temporary satisfaction and sometimes put us in bondage. The outside in way is conditional but the way of the Spirit is unconditional.
Thanks for commenting.
Blessings
M
March 15, 2012 at 8:14 PM
Great post…very challenging. Glad to have found your blog!
March 15, 2012 at 10:31 PM
Thanks, it does put things in perspective. You might like some of my early blogs. Let me know if you check them out.
Blessings,
Mitchell