Lips of praise

 

The cultural and personal insights while learning a language can be really interesting.  One of the (many) things that’s hard for me is the conversational back and forth.  There’s nothing concrete to connect it to but more than that, they aren’t words or phrases I would’ve said in English.  It’s more than just training my brain to replace one word with another, it’s training it to talk in a whole new way. 

In the Arab world, God is brought into almost every conversation.  For example, if you ask someone ‘How are you?’ you’re likely to get a response of ‘Thanks be to God’.  There’s both a Muslim and Christian equivalent so you can sometimes tell the person’s upbringing.  It does not actually answer the question, but then again, ‘fine’ is often more of an automatic response than anything. 

Having this constant focus on God has advantages and disadvantages.  We do need to thank God for each moment and each day.  There’s a song titled, Ever Be, and the chorus repeats the line “your praise will ever be on my lips,” but how often is this actually true?  In America, do we truly go around praising God at random times of the day and to total strangers?    The flip side of that though is if you’re saying it all the time, are you truly meaning it or is it more of an automatic response?   There are some people whose responses are incredibly genuine and the tone and mannerisms of some says otherwise. 

How can your language reflect your beliefs this week?  How can you be in a constant state of prayer and praise without slipping into a complacent state of going through the motions without reflecting on the meaning? 
 

 

Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.  For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
 

 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

 (Heb 13:12-15 NAS)

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