Shift Your Focus to Praise

Let me set the scene.

You wake up and have a passionate quiet time with God. You read your Bible. You pray. You give thanks. You listen for God's voice. You sing worship. Maybe you even journal a bit. You walk away feeling like you have just been with the Father.

Then you get up and begin your day.

Work. Kids. Bills. Errands. Chores. Life. Things begin to happen in your day and you don't feel that connection with God anymore. It may not even be that anything bad has happened. You're just so busy. Or maybe something bad did happen, like the kids are misbehaving, you are arguing with your husband, you're stuck in traffic or your boss just gave you an extra project and the deadline is closing in on you.

You wonder what happened. Just this morning you felt so connected to God, so aware of His presence. Yet, now it feels like that was moons ago.

Have you ever felt this way? Wondered why you could feel God just hours ago and now He feels so far away? Wondered why He was so present at church on Sunday and you felt Him so strongly and now He feels just out of reach?

It's time to shift your focus.

I will bless the Lord at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

We should continually have praise on our lips. We should feel Him and be aware of Him at all times. It's time to shift our focus to praise.

How can we do this?

In the middle of those everyday, mundane tasks, intentionally shift your focus to God. Take a little break to purposely praise Him. It could be as simple as slowing your pace as you walk into your office and thanking Him for the day and for your work. It could be pausing as you put the laundry away to thank Him for your family and for the provisions you have. It could be turning off the radio in the car and just telling Him how much you love Him.

Other ways to shift your focus to praise is by placing Scripture in your home and in your car. As you walk by, read the Scripture aloud. Recently I took several Scripture cards I've collected from She Reads Truth and Illustrated Faith and I placed them in my car and one in my wallet. Now every time I open my wallet and as I drive, I see God's Word.

Another way is to continually play Christian music in your home, office and car. We have a radio in our kitchen that is always on. Christian music fills my home 24/7. Since our family loves music so much and the music is filling our home, any one of us can often be found singing praises throughout the day.

The more we take these little praise pauses throughout the day, the closer we will feel to God. We don't have to be sitting down, Bible in hand, eyes closed and we don't have to be in a church building. We can praise Him at any time and in any place. Become intentional about taking praise pauses throughout your day. Set alarms on your phone if you need the reminder. Whatever it takes. Let His praise continually be in your mouth.




Linking with:
Woman to Woman's Word Filled Wednesday