The Sacrifice of Praise

The writer of Hebrews calls our thanksgiving a sacrifice, "the sacrifice of praise… the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." That word "sacrifice" is telling, because a sacrifice costs something. There are times when praise and thanks come easily, welling up from a glad heart. But there are other times, in grief, in disappointment, in the dark, when to give thanks costs us dearly, when praise must be brought to God against the grain of our feelings. That is the sacrifice of praise: thanksgiving offered when it is hard, laid on the altar at real cost.

And notice the word "continually." We are to offer this sacrifice not only when we feel like it, but continually, in the good seasons and the hard ones alike. This does not mean denying our pain or faking a cheerfulness we do not feel; the sacrifice of praise is honest, often offered through tears. But it is a deliberate choice to keep turning to God with thanks even when everything in us wants to stop. And such costly praise is precious to God, perhaps more precious than the easy kind, because it says: I trust and bless You even here, even now.

If thanks is hard today, do not wait until it becomes easy. Offer the sacrifice of praise, continually, at whatever cost, and trust that God receives it.