Don’t miss God Appreciation Day!
by VivianAlmost everyone has an appreciation day.
First one listed in a web search is System Administrator Appreciation Day in July (is this a high tech society or what?). Of course there’s Teacher’s Day in May, and Secretary’s Day in April (oops — now it’s Administrative Professionals Day). And today, January 28, is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!
But is there a God Appreciation Day?
I suppose Sunday (the Lord’s Day) could be considered God Appreciation Day. But, do we really appreciate God?
Most of us appreciate God in the sense of this definition (from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language on Dictionary.com):
To be thankful or show gratitude for
In the ACTS model for prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), thanksgiving and supplication are the easy parts. Most of us are very good at thanking God for all He does for us, and turning right around and asking for more. But God is a whole lot bigger than that.
I’m surprised that J. B. Phillips didn’t include “The Divine Santa” in his list of unreal or inadequate Gods in his book “Your God is Too Small.”
To fully appreciate God in all His glory, we need to strive for the sense of this definition:
To recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of
That is what adoration, or appreciation, is really about. Focusing on Who God is, not just what He does for us. Every prayer should start with this kind of appreciation, so that we have the proper perspective in approaching God.
(My Moms In Touch group really helped me develop the appreciation part of my prayer life, since each week we open our prayer time by focusing on just one attribute of God.)
Think of adjectives, like all the omni’s (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent). Or God as the source of goodness, truth, and hope in our lives. And He actually desires a relationship with us? Now, that’s a God worthy of appreciation!
Make every day God Appreciation Day! What aspect of God do you particularly appreciate today?
January 28th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
When we tell God how much we appreciate Him, isn’t this a form of adoration? We address Him as the Provider, Protector …
When we let God know we rely on Him to meet our needs, isn’t this too a form of praise? We recognize He is the Giver, Sustainer …
What kind of God needs to be told he is Amazing, Beautiful, Caring, Delightful …?
Doesn’t it come across as being a bit/lot self-centered and a bit/lot self-serving?
January 28th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
You are playing someone’s advocate here, Bill, which is always fun for me.
I would agree that telling God we appreciate him is a “form” of adoration. But if you only ever told your wife that you appreciated her, you would soon learn the difference between that form of adoration and the form that says directly, “I love you.”
The same is true, of course, for your “form of praise.” Yes, telling God he meets my needs might indicate that I am praising him, but if I only tell my co-workers that they met the needs and failed to tell them “good job” they would feel the difference. So does God, based on what I read of him.
As for your “devil’s advocate” question about the kind of God that needs to be told, it is the kind who created us to love him. Anyone who argues seriously that God’s desire for our praises is arrogant or self-centered in the same way we are those things makes several mistakes all at one time.
But I know you know better and are just having fun with us. And that causes me to smile and say, “I appreciate you.”
January 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
What *is* self-centered and self-serving is appreciating God *only* in relation to our own needs. Prayer, especially praise, is important, not so much because God needs it, but because *we* need it to remind ourselves of our humble position in relation to God in all His glory. Contrary to how we tend to live our lives, it certainly isn’t all about us.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
It certainly isn’t all about us. Last night, as I was trying to calm myself beyond the late afternoon espresso and into sleep, I was thinking about why praising God is so difficult.
I can’t speak for everyone, but one conclusion that I drew for myself is that when I really think about God, he’s overwhelming. It’s like trying to get your head around a number like “stars in the sky” or “grains of sand in Saudi Arabia.”
When you try to describe something — and that is what we do when we praise, describe and reflect back to God something about him that we’ve noticed and appreciate — you use terms that you know, comparisons to something more tangible or understood.
Every single characteristic about God that I could think of was comparatively so much MORE (massive, awesome, fast, big, beautiful, etc.) than anything or anyone I could imagine. So it’s easy to get bogged down, give up, and head directly into the Honey Do list, a far more limited, understandable, quantifiable, predictable place to dwell.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Sure, praising God can be difficult when you’re not used to it, but it’s worth getting used to, to catch a glimpse of our overwhelming, incomprehensible God. Otherwise, our view of God tends to be pretty myopic.
That’s why Moms In Touch is so great, because I get to exercise my praise muscle every week. And at first I thought, wow, how can people pray for a whole hour? My praying muscle got exercised too!
Sort of like we always talk about exercising and eating right when it comes to our physical well-being, I think we ought to encourage a stronger, well-balanced prayer life for our spiritual health as well.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
To answer your original question, what I appreciate most today about God is his persistence, a quality that eludes me in many ways.
God’s persistence is demonstrated in a lot of ways, but I am most touched by his persistent love for me, a love that is:
• ancient – it started when he created the universe
• continuous – he loved me even before I knew myself
• dogged – he loves me no matter what and pursues my attention like a Hound of Heaven
• unchanging – I get to participate in the original promise he made to Abraham