Praise a Covenant Response

I have used the term "covenant response" many times as obedience to God's covenant expectation from those who are in covenant with Him.  I will be exploring this aspect of covenant at a later time.  But for some time I have been considering praise as more than an obedient response.  Yes, the Scriptures do encourage our praise.  But praise does not seem to flow freely from some that I know honestly feel they belong to the family of God.  This has been a concern to me and one I ask the Spirit"s help.  I believe there is a response to a covenant that goes beyond fulfilling a covenant expectation. 

To see this, we have to understand with Whom we are in covenant.  Jesus gave us God's pattern of our response when He said for us to "ask, seek and knock".  It goes beyond reading the Bible and praying.  It becomes feeding on His Word, meditating on His Word until it fills our conscious and unconsicous reactions.  Our desire to know Him alienates us from this realm.  We become strangers seeking another City.  We become seekers. 

The more we know Him, the more we view those around us in the eternal view of God.  Speaking of His love and mercy to those who have no hope becomes second nature.  It is not a conscious effort to win the lost, but a natural compulsion to introduce them to the One Who loves them unconditionally.

It is no longer a covenant response for me to respect my husband.  It is in my spirit and soul.  It is in my very nature to do so.  This to me is the true source of praise.  Constant contact with the nature of God produces reverent praise.   It comes from the knowledge of His love and the response to that love.  It becomes a part of your nature to praise Him.  It is that intimate relationship that mutual love produces. 

Praise no longer becomes something we are supposed to do.   For many Christians, praise is programmed by their church.  No matter how meaningful a song is to you, if only sung in church when the program announces it, praise is limited.  God receives the praise we give Him, but it does not create within us that intimate relationship with God.  God does expect us to be grateful to Him.  An example that comes to mind is the reaction of Jesus when nine of the ten lepers that were healed did not come back to thank Him.  It is an expected reaction.  Generally, praise is a thankful reaction to a blessing.  This is an element of praise that is a covenant response that we are conditioned to give as children of God.  We do not drop this element of praise because our praise deepens into true worship.  Thankfulness robs doubt of its hold on us.  Being thankful and praising God through the testing that comes to all of us, robs the darkness of the testing.  When we are focused on our own self and our reactions to the testing, we grope to find a way out.

Praise is the gateway to the faith that produces our entrance into His Rest.