The Sacrifice of Praise – Stepping in the Light

“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Hebrews 13:15

A 2007 study led by Dr. Matthias Mehl, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, found that the average person speaks about 16,000 words per day. The study included 396 people, and the average number of words per day for each participant varied widely. The person who spoke the least averaged less than 1,000 words per day, and the one with the highest average words per day was nearly 47,000. What would you guess would be your average number of words spoken per day? If you were close to the average of 16,000 words per day recorded by those included in Dr. Mehl’s study, what percentage of those words would be spoken in prayer? How many words would be spoken in praise to God? How many words would be used to share the gospel with others? The passage above speaks of the sacrifice of praise, and it is defined as “the fruit of our lips giving thanks” to God. When it comes to our finances, God measures our sacrifice in percentages. He begins by telling us that the tithe, ten percent, belongs to Him. We may bring offerings above this percentage to show our gratitude for His goodness to us, but the tithe is the Lord’s. What if we gave ten percent of our words to God in praise? For the average person, that would be 1,600 words, which would take about fifteen minutes. Are you praising Him throughout the day? Try beginning and ending each day with praise.

Morning: Ezekiel 8-10

Evening: Hebrews 13

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“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105

If you were to find yourself walking down a path in the dark of night with only an old-fashioned lantern to light the way, you wouldn’t be able to see very far ahead. You would be able to see just enough of the pathway to know which direction to take your next step and enough of the ground to choose the best place for your feet. When it comes to our daily lives, God’s Word is a lot like that lantern. It will not show us the whole path at once, but it is exactly what we need to help us decide how to take the next step.

The Bible is our source of spiritual light, and if we consistently seek God’s direction as we read from its pages, we will always have enough light for our next step along the pathway of life. It is then that we are, in the words of an old gospel song, “stepping in the light.”

The goal of this devotional guide is to encourage you to spend time in the Word of God each day. Reading the passages listed at the bottom of the page will take you all the way through the Bible in one year. The devotional thought for each day is taken from a text within that day’s reading, so even that small daily portion of reading will take you on a journey through God’s Word. It is my prayer that this guide would help you to walk closer to the Lord and that you will find yourself taking each step in the light of His Word.

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