When you really experience God, you will really praise God.
Just like you really praise anything and everything else that you really experience and really enjoy.
Some misquote, or misunderstand, this verse:
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15.
They interpret "a sacrifice of praise," as praising God EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T "FEEL" LIKE IT. But read these verses, and see if this interpretation is correct:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. James 5:13
James isn't cheerleading God's people into "praising God any how!" You know what I mean. When you're in church and you're supposed to clap and yell and praise God even if you don't feel like it, the "sacrifice of praise."
This is not true.
When God speaks of the "sacrifice of praise," He is contrasting the offering given in the past that were merely external, like animal sacrifices done according to the Law of Moses yet without sincerity. God wants us to "offer" our hearts in genuineness. But this by definition doesn't mean acting like we are praising God when we're not. In those times, in times of sorrow, we should pray, not praise.
God is real, and wants us to be real.
Jesus hates hypocrisy, which is ironically one of the things we as believers are most criticized for!
Real praise comes from real joy in the experience of the real God!
This is what the psalms are about when they invite praise! Those who are singing to God are sincerely in awe of God, which is very much unlike the lame and boring songs that some of us sing to God with no heart or emotion. We give more genuine praise to a good movie we've seen or a good restaurant we've gone to than to the living God! Why? Because we aren't really experiencing Him, as the word of God says,
"Taste and see that the LORD is good." Psalms 34:8
Tasting is a very intimate physical experience. When we taste, we take food or drink into ourselves and digest them. They become a part of us. And we know the food or drink most intimately. This is what the psalmist is inviting us to, an experience of God he has had and wants to share with us, just like when you eat something really good and can't help but invite someone to try it.
This is real praise!
This is how to you really praise God!
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