THE POWER OF PRAISE | Liv Fry

What do you do when something goes wrong or you get caught in a bad situation? Do you try and distract yourself by doing something else? Do you grab a friend, freak out for a second, then feel a bit better? Do you find yourself getting anxious because you can’t stop thinking about the issue?

All these are good for a second but will only leave you in the same spot.

When you read Acts 16, you’ll find two guys who found themselves in a bad situation, their names are Paul and Silas. These guys were basically on ‘tour’ in this chapter, they travelled around preaching the gospel, growing churches, seeing people freed from demons, and so much more!

They were the real deal and people knew it. Their tour was going great and then all of a sudden, they were thrown into prison for getting a demon out of a young girl. They were beaten, flogged, had their feet chained to their cell—talk about a rough day!

They probably had no idea what their tomorrow was going to look like, but even in the midst of this, at midnight they were praying and singing hymns, songs of praise! Why would they be doing this? Because they knew the power of praise.

Praise is lifting your eyes off your situation and onto God.

Praise is telling God who He is and thanking Him for all He has done. Praise lifts us out of our situation and fills us with the strength of God.

Praise is not passive, it’s intentional—it’s actually a weapon we’ve been given from God!

My favourite part of this scripture is that we see Paul and Silas take hold of this weapon and begin to use it, and when they did, the other prisoners applauded them for nailing the latest Hillsong hit... JUST KIDDING!

It’s even better! All the prison doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose!! What!?

You might not literally be in prison with chains around your feet, but you might be bound to bad thought patterns, stressed about exams, or anxious about a situation. Whatever it is, you have the choice to lift your eyes off that situation and onto Jesus by praising. The moment we lift our eyes, we find Him.

And when we find Him, we find whatever we need; peace, joy, freedom... anything! Dive into Acts 16 and 17 this week and let it inspire you to praise!