SATURDAY June 13, 2026
The Sacrifice of Praise
Therefore by Him [Jesus] let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Hebrews 13:15
All because of Jesus, and for everything He has accomplished on our behalf, we praise Him. The fruit of our lips is to give thanks to His name. I love that. Too often we forget to praise the One who saved us.
Psalm 33:1-3: Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.
Jonah 2:9: “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
Every day when we wake up in the morning, we should have praise upon our lips. We are to continually offer the sacrifices of praise to our God. This is not only by singing, but worship also involves “a bowing down” as we surrender our entire bodies in humble service to God. Our true worship is our surrender and obedience to Him.
The prophet Jonah learned this the hard way––in the belly of a fish! God asked him to go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it because of their wickedness. But Jonah decided to flee from God’s presence. That did not go too well. When he boarded a ship to Tarshish––believed to be modern-day Spain––God sent a storm. Jonah, knowing he was the reason for the storm, was thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish. In the belly of the fish, he had a change of heart, and, even though reluctant, he did as he was told. Jonah went and preached in Nineveh (Jonah 1-3).
As Christians, we need to honor the Lord by being pleasing to Him with our praise. The fruit of our lips is heard in our prayers of thanksgiving and in our songs of praise; but most of all, it is seen in the worship of our lives as we bow down in surrender to His perfect will.
God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.
~Elisabeth Elliot~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
