Praise the Lord

On Friday at Bible Study, we discussed Psalm 150 and its exhortation to praise with every kind of instrument.  We've committed to spend time praising the Lord each day, meaning listening to and/or singing along with praise music.  Yvonne mentioned that the first week was awkward; she takes quiet time with God each day, but hasn't been focused on praise and it felt strange.  Carol asked, "What about when I don't feel like praising?  Does God want us to have an attitude of, 'OK, I'll just do it anyway because it's on the list'?"  After mulling that over and talking about it some more, we agreed - "Yes."   When Hebrews 13 exhorts us to  "continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise," isn't the writer implying that it isn't always easy?   If we only did for our children or our spouses what we felt like doing, our relationships would quickly deteriorate.  We are "by nature sinful and unclean," so sometimes we just have to grit our teeth and act in accordance with our beliefs, principles or convictions, ignoring our feelings.  Yvonne also reminded us that our actions tend to produce feelings; if we do what we should, often (or at least occasionally) our emotions will catch up and we'll feel good about it.  We decided to continue praising each day, whether we feel like it or not!