praise God in the storm....

Have you ever felt like you are the only person in the world with so much hurt, so much despair, so much worry, and so many problems. You feel like the emotions could just pull you under a wave of depression. A never ending despair.....that is how felt on Sunday. Then God delivered the most amazing message to me through my Pastor. Essentially, it was about praising God amidst the "wars" we face. A portion of his sermon came from Joshua 6. If you grew up in a church where biblical songs were taught... you will know the song "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down"....well, that's the main chorus but you get the point.
God called on Joshua to lead his people in praising God before the battle of Jericho. He was telling them to do what we would think is ridiculous! There have been several situations where praising God is the last thing I want to do. I want God to fix it or make it go away! It isn't in our selfish nature to do the Praising before the victory. We want a victory over whatever is weighing us down, and all we want is for others to pray for us (which isn't necessarily bad) and for God to answer our prayers quickly!
There are so many opportunities in my life where I should have been praising God before the victory. Now, I'm starting to realize how the praising of God in the bad times is just as important as Praising Him in the good times. We all have those days where we are the only guest at our pity parties. We get distracted by all the circumstantial stuff of life. We think it will drown us. We begin to believe the enemy is going to win us over. But, there is hope, there is a God. He is the God of Heaven and Earth. He knows our deepest thoughts, our sorrows, our joys, our problems and even holds the answers to it ALL! This week, my heart is set on praising God through the stroms I am facing. It will make the victory even sweeter!