Entering God's Presence with Praise | “Better Together” with Laurie Crouch | Holly Furtick

I find a lot of times I have to will myself into that place. It's not like, you know, Victoria, you talked about waking up in the mornings. I am not a morning person. And so when I wake up in the mornings, I'm not like, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it, but sometimes I just have to start saying it, you know? And I find in my own life, a lot of times especially. Especially in the morning when I'm. However. My kids would probably call it grumpy, however. You want to describe my morning mood, I find that when I go to God, I, a lot of times just want to start with all the things that are negative on my mind, all the things that I'm anxious about, all the things that I'm disappointed about, all the things that, you know, I'm asking God to do, and we can come to God with those things. But I feel like on the days where I come and I set the tone and I come into God's presence, like you're saying, and I start with Thanksgiving, that it turns. Sometimes a lot of those things that I'm worried about or nervous about, they're not even a thing anymore because now I'm focused on the bigness and the greatness of God. And, you know, one of the things that I did recently, I decided that I wanted a book of prayers. And so I literally went on Amazon, I promise you, and I searched Book of Prayers, and I found this little book that has scriptures. It's just this little. I really don't even know what it was, but it was one of the first things that came up. And it has all of these scriptures and prayers, and they're written out one. There's like a section for. For each day of the week. So there's like Sunday morning, afternoon, evening, Monday, and goes all the way through the week. So whatever time of day it is, sometimes I'll just open it up till, you know, Wednesday morning, and it will have a psalm and it will have the Lord's Prayer, and they're right there. You don't have to buy a book. You can start with a psalm. Sometimes just to get your mind into that right place, you've got to open up the word of God and. And start reading it and speaking it with your mouth so that you will begin to feel it in your feelings.

I love what you said, Holly. When you come into his presence with Thanksgiving, all of a sudden your petitions take such a backseat. That's what happens in my life. Anyway, once you start praising God and walking into the authority that you know you have in Christ, all of a sudden the petitions start getting less and less. And it's like, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. I will walk in what you say today. And all of a sudden, those little. Our big things become little in the presence of God because it says to magnify the Lord. And so when you magnify him, man, everything else just shrinks to nothing.

And I think there's something too, about remembering who we are. I saw this kid in a coffee shop the other day, and his. His T shirt said, normal ain't coming back, but Jesus is. It made me laugh, but there was such a truth to that.

It's like.

Cause I'm thinking of people watching right now. And some of you are in the best days of your life, and some of you are in the most challenging days of your life. Some of you just got great news, and some of you just got the most devastating news you've ever had. So where is the ground level before the cross? It's the fact that because of Jesus Christ, we win. You know, he is coming back one day. We're gonna be with him forever. And sometimes that's the place I start with. I start with what I know to be sure. Cause sometimes I haven't during pandemic, but often twice, three times a year, I'll be in some of the worst areas of Africa where we've set up feeding programs. Or I'll be in the streets in Cambodia where we rescue girls from sex trafficking. And I'm always aware of, okay, what can we share here? That's true whether you live in Beverly Hills or you live in Angola, where they've had the worst drought in 40 years. What is true and what is true is that Jesus has promised, you will never be alone. I will never leave you. I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I am coming back. And I think when we remember those basic truths of our faith, every single one of us has a reason to shout out loud.

Yeah. You know, I love that so much. It reminded me. There was a story that I heard about a pastor who had lost his son. And as a result, he had a lot of anger and animosity towards God. You know, I'm serving youg people. I'm doing all of this. How could. How could you'd let me lose my son? And every time he would come before God with anger that he would hear the Lord tell Him, worship me and sing praises before me. And He Never wanted to do that. And he was just like, why? Why should I? You know, you took my son. And he dealt with so, so much anger. And one particular day he just gave in. He was like, you know what? I'm just going to worship. And that was the first time that he broke down in tears. And he. What started off not. He didn't feel like it was authentic to him. But as he started to worship, all of a sudden he felt the love of Jesus, that I can't have normalcy back, right? I'm not. I don't have my son with me. But it was recognizing. But Jesus, you would always be with me. You would never leave me. And even though I don't understand your plans, I know that they're always for me. There are some things that are beyond my understanding. There are some things that. What I think is best for me, you might say, you know what? Not in this manner. And from that place, he began to pastor over his church again. And I think that's so powerful when we look at the foundation of why we come before God. It's not because of anything that he gives us. Because again, we don't own anything he gives us. We only steward over what he gives us. And from that place, we can praise, we can worship. Because some people might be listening to this. And maybe you just went through a loss, maybe something tragic just happened in your life. And it's like, I don't feel like worshiping. I don't feel like praising. I want normalcy. But normal is not coming back. I love that so much. But Jesus is. And Jesus, and not only is he coming back, there's a promise he has given us. Never would he leave us. Never will he forsake us. He would see us through the low times of life, and he will see us through. He will be with us in the high moments of life. And that right there. To know that you have an advocate who is always by your side, I mean, it is truly worthy of worship.

You know, praise strengthens my spirit. I find that when I'm discouraged if I'll begin to praise God. Discouragement can't grow in an atmosphere of praise. It really can. It can't take root in your heart. It cannot grow. It cannot get bigger. So when you find yourself discouraged, when you begin to praise God, somehow it just turns that discouragement into just something way bigger. It just turns it into just. You start seeing God and not the discouragement. You begin to praise him, magnify him, make him bigger than what your problems are. And I believe that that praise was designed to strengthen us and just set us on a strong place. Because, you know, praise is part of equipping the saints. And the Bible talks about the spirit of the man that's going to sustain the man. And when you've got a strong spirit, you're equipped to face difficulties. You're equipped to come against challenges because we don't know what's going to happen. Nobody wants anything bad to happen to them. Absolutely not. Our prayer is like, keep us safe and keep our children and families safe. But when you. When you praise you, you fortify your spirit. And it's the spirit of the man that sustains the man. And so I find that in my praise, it builds me up in those innermost places. So that's what I love about praise and worship. And sometimes I love to praise God because I don't know exactly how to pray. I mean, I know what I want, but sometimes I think in my mind, well, if I get this, what if this happens and what if that happens? So I'm just like, God, I just praise you. I just praise you that this is gonna work out. God. I just praise you because, you know, the beginning from the end, and I don't wanna pray something and then think, oh, my gosh, but that had to happen to get that. And, you know, so I think praise is just the best place to be, the best place to start and the best place to end.

I was just thinking about how important Jesus thought prayer was. You know, that was part of the theme of his life where he would get up and he would leave and he would go away and Jesus would pray. So what was he saying? I mean, God. God in the flesh was praying, you know, and so for us to kind of see that prayer is an essential in our daily lives is just kind of a misnomer. Because we think that somehow prayer is going to change God when actually it's changing us on the inside. And I think it breeds that thankfulness and that grateful heart from the inside.

And.

And if Jesus did it and it was good for him, I'd certainly think it was good for us. Right, Holly?

That's so true. And, you know, for me, too, there are times. I mean, I know all of you would agree there are times where you just. You can't bring it up. You're so heavy, you're so burdened with whatever's going on in your life that it's almost. You feel like it's impossible to speak positively and to see the good and to praise God. And to worship God. And that's where I think the beauty of church comes in. Because there have been so many times where I have walked into church feeling heavy and feeling, quite frankly, frustrated with God. But when I get around others who are praising God and those songs get in my spirit, and I hear other people singing and worshiping and saying Amen, it's like I'm borrowing from the faith of others around me and something stirs in my spirit. And then I take those songs that I'm learning in church and I'm playing them in my car and I'm playing them in my kitchen, and I'm feeling the faith of others that I experienced when I was in church, in my own home and in my own kitchen. And it's just an amazing thing when all of it comes together and you realize how big God is and how he's. He's right there with you, even in your. Your disappointment or your fear. Hey, thanks for watching. I hope that that encouraged you today. Make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss out on other videos like this, and I'll see you back here.

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