Is the bulk of worry or heartbreak just too large to get your praise around this holiday season? Maybe you’ve just received an unsettling diagnosis. Maybe this is the first Christmas without your spouse. Maybe you recently lost your job.
Maybe you just don’t feel good. Your bones ache, your head hurts, your mouth is dry. It hurts too much to think about singing or worshiping. In fact, it might seem that to join in the celebrations of the season would require you to lay aside your pain, to ignore or make light of your sorrow. Wouldn’t praising God right now feel like pretending?
God Understands
Sacrifice and praise sound like two different actions. We associate sacrifice with something difficult, though meaningful, and praise with something accompanied by a joyful smile. But both actions are other-centered acts of giving: When we make a sacrifice, we relinquish something that benefits us for the benefit of someone else. Praise is bestowed for the edification and glory of the recipient.
God sees you right now, dear one. He knows.
He longs for us to praise Him, not for His sake alone but for our sake. He knows that lifting up our eyes and our voice in worship, even for a minute, will be like a soothing balm on dry, cracked skin.
Though praising God right now might feel absurd, too hard, or even insulting—a mockery of your pain—remember that He knows all about sacrifice. Remember the pain Christ endured. The baby born in the stable that you might be struggling to focus on right now grew to be a man who struggled in the garden of Gethsemane. He begged His Father for a different scenario. He was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isaiah 53:3). But “for the joy set before him,” He obeyed His Father’s will (Hebrews 12:2). He focused on the coming joy, the infinite restoration of His beloved sheep to His Father, through Himself, the Good Shepherd. He gave of Himself even in the pain for you, for us.
You Are Not Alone
The writer of Psalms 42 and 43 was grieving, questioning, and "remembering how it used to be." But when we read these psalms, we see nine times where he says, “I will.” He determined to put his hope in God and praise Him still.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
-Psalm 42:5,11
Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
-Psalm 43:3-5
He Inhabits Our Praises—Even When It's A Sacrifice
Your praise doesn’t have to be showy or exuberant, as if you still didn’t have questions. It can be a tender song or a spoken verse to remind you of His goodness. He is unchanging and remains worthy of praise, even hard praise.
As you rehearse the truth about Him, you may not find answers to your “Why?” But because He inhabits our praises (Psalm 22:3), you will find He is present with you amid this refining fire of trial or grief. He longs to comfort you.
Friend, if you are hurting this holiday, lay your pain gently on the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord. Choose to believe, to remind yourself that God can still be trusted. He is still good because He is still God. In the dark moments, whisper His name, for His name is praise. If you can’t lift your head, lift your hand and reach for Him, and He will hold you. Invite the Light into your darkness and know that you are not alone (Isaiah 9:2).
Where to Begin When You're Ready
If you are looking for His comfort, His nearness, you can begin by reflecting on what is true about God—the “I AM” statements of God found in the book of John, for example; the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and the attributes of His love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Another wonderful way to experience God and the fullness of His plan of salvation during the Christmas season is to listen to Handel’s Messiah. This is a magnificent piece that proclaims the majesty of God in song. I’ve created a free download of every Scripture reference sung throughout the piece for you to print out and use to follow along. If you’re not a fan of this type of music, I encourage you to still read through each Scripture in order. It will fill your cup with wonder and praise for our great Father!
"I know": the words contain
Unfathomable comfort for our pain.
How they can hold such depths I do not know—
I only know that it is so.
"Fear not": the words have power
to give the thing they name; for in an hour
of utter weariness, the soul, aware of One beside her bed,
is comforted.
O Lord most dear,
I thank Thee, and I worship—
Thou art here.
-Amy Carmichael
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