I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, its the 21st of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Isaiah 61:3 in the Old Testament: 

"The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;…"  

Then we go to the New Testament, to the Book of Acts 16:25-26: 

"But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed." 

The power of praise! How are you feeling this morning? Are you feeling downcast or heavy-hearted? I know, I know - I feel like that as well, oh yes, I do indeed, but how do we combat that heaviness, that dark cloud that descends upon us? Sometimes, we can't even explain it - everything is going well but there is just a heaviness. Well, we do exactly what Paul and Silas did in that horrible, dirty, dark dungeon. We start to praise the Lord! We praise the Lord especially when we do not feel like it. It is like trying to get fit when you are in the gym and you are training hard for a race or some sport. It is always the times that you don't feel like training that it does you the best. Isn't that right? Normally when you say, "I do not feel like getting up this morning and going to the gym", that's when you must do it. Well, the same thing applies when you don't feel like praising the Lord; thats when you praise Him, especially when we are going through hard times. That is what lifts us up, lifts our spirits when we praise Him unconditionally. 

I have just returned from a mountain bike ride early this morning. There was nobody anywhere to be seen hardly, and I started to sing praises to the Lord on my mountain bike. I am sure if anybody saw me, they would have thought I had lost my marbles, but you know, the more I praised the Lord, the lighter my spirit became, and I started to focus on positive things, like soon, very soon, the Lord is coming back to take us home to be with Him in Heaven. I started to focus on the fact that the Lord promised me, "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you." I began to focus on things like, "I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me," and my heart just lifted up. For I am confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in me shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.  

Go out today and praise Him because He is a good God and because He deserves it and He is worthy of it. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.