Praise as a weapon

Psalm 149:6-7   May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples. 

Praise is a powerful weapon in the battle for our emotions.  Lifting our hands, singing shouting, crying to the Lord can be a humbling experience. But when we do choose to praise him, we are inviting him to work through us, to battle for us. Having praise as a weapon is exciting to me.  I have a weapon against against fear, anxiety, insecurity, depression, anger. Those emotions don't hurt anybody except me. I've realized that they are not part of my personality, why would I want to hang on to them.  When a situation in the physical realm rears its ugly head to cause us to feel those ungodly emotion,  a battle for dominance begins in the spiritual realm.  I have to choose to pick up my weapon of Praise.  It is greater then any two-egde sword.  My circumstances may not change right away, but my attitude will.

Not to long ago, my mother and I had a fight that caused us not to speak to one another for several days.  We both had said things that hurt each other.  One evening, as I was wallowing in my own self-pity, I began to feel" the nudge".  You know the nudge from God when he wants you to do something.  "No way. God, you heard the things she said to me. I am too angry."  I felt the feeling in my spirit to pray for her. "I don't want too pray for my mother. I just want to stay here in my anger, hurt and miserable feelings for a while longer". (Like that would fix her -right?)   Can you picture this argument?  Can you guess whose going to win? Still the burden to pray for her would not let up, instead it just got stronger. So I started of grudgingly. "I praise you." I praise you." "I praise you."  This went on for several minutes. Now granted not everyone has this experience, but this is what helped me.  Then I started in on the things that were good in my life; praising and thanking him for who he is and want he has done.  The next thing I knew I was praising him for my mother and that led into praying for her the way he wanted me to pray for her.

Have a blessed day!