If you’ve been in church for a while, i am sure you would heard the phrase ‘sacrifice of praise’. In my church we actually sing a song along that line. The first line of the song is we bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. It’s a beautiful song which I love. But what does it really mean to offer a sacrifice of praise?

A sacrifice is a worship or atonement offering; something given up or lost.

Google defines it as to give up (something valued) for the sake of other considerations.

From both definitions, we can see that a sacrifice costs the giver something. Keep this definitions in mind as we will be referring to them later. For now let’s see the meaning of praise.

Praise is a worship; commendation; value, merit; give honour to. It is the expression of respect and gratitude as an act of worship.

I personally love the google definition because it reveals that there is a reason behind a sacrifice. Something has to be given up for a praise to become a sacrifice. It has to have a cost attached to it. That sacrifice can be in the form of not focusing on what we don’t have and choosing to give praise for what we have. This is the kind of praise we give when that prayer point have still not been answered. It is a sacrifice when our flesh really doesn’t feel like praising but we push through our emotions and command our spirit, soul and body to praise God. This comes from a place of ‘I am thanking you for who you are not just what you have done’. Yes this is when it is a sacrifice.

When the bills are yet to be paid but we praise anyway.

When He is yet to fulfill that promise but we tell Him He is great anyway.

When our bodies ache from pain and affliction but we still tell Him He is a good Father.

When there is no food on the table and we still call Him Jehovah Jireh.

When death strikes and we still declare His love for us.

This is when it is a sacrifice.

Sacrifices of praise helps us proclaim our allegiance to God’s name.In sacrificing, we loose greed and selfishness. We give up complaining as we begin to focus on God instead of ourselves.

Until our praise costs us something, it isn’t a sacrifice, it is a convenient offering. The blessings attached to sacrifices aren’t the same with the ones that comes from a place of convenience. We don’t only have to praise God in bad times, we also need to praise Him in good times.

Friends, whatever we are going through, let’s remember that anyone can easily praise God from a place of convenience but He also deserves sacrificial praise. Let’s praise Him because He is God.