“Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”

Psalm 8:2

Since the fall of man and even when Jesus walked on this earth, it has always been the enemy’s motive to stop humanity from praising God. The enemy does not like when we praise God because he wants us to praise him instead. For this reason, there is such a resistance when it comes to us coming into that place of praise and worship to God.

If we look at Matthew 21:15-16, “(The chief priest and teachers of the law were indignant) They speak to Jesus, ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ Jesus says, ‘Yes, have you never read from the lips of children and infants you Lord have called for your praise?’” We can see here how the enemy always wants to stop us from praising God. This is because praise will lift up a solid wall of protection around our lives and our families. According to Psalm 8:2 it says, “…a stronghold of protection is ESTABLISHED against our enemies.” It silences the avenger (the devil). We are guarded in God’s fortress and our lives can rest in assurance because of our praise toward Him.

Praise changes our perspective of our situation. It helps us from being “ME” focused to “GOD” focused. Praise loosens the bondages from our lives because we recognize who created us and it also reminds us of who we belong to. When we begin to live a life of praise and worship to God, it silences the enemy and we begin to walk in the “Freedom to Reign” by the power of the Holy Spirit and the integrity of God’s Word.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
My husband shared a testimony of how one day he had misplaced our son’s fundraiser tickets and money. It was a lot of money, and if it wasn’t found we would be responsible to replace that with our own money. In aggressive pursuit, he began to turn the house (and our family) upside down looking for those tickets and money. It got to the point where none of us wanted to help him to find it. After a long period of time and coming to the end of his rope, he stopped everything he was doing and just started to sing and worship God. He began to worship and sing, “Zion is calling me to a higher place of praise. To stand upon the mountain and magnify his name. To tell all the people and every nation that he REIGNS, Zion is calling me to a higher place of praise.”

In the midst of worshipping God, the Lord revealed to him exactly where the tickets and money were. It had fallen between the lining of our truck and it was exactly where God told him it would be. We started to thank God and give Him glory. My Husband shared that when he was doing things on his own, not once through the chaos, did he seek God’s help. It was only when he surrendered himself to God in worship that God showed up and was able to work on his behalf. (Deneen Quartero)

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“Through my praises to God, He establishes a stronghold against the enemy, and I have THE FREEDOM TO REIGN IN LIFE WITH CHRIST JESUS.”

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: Isaiah 3-5; Proverbs 19:1-14
• New Testament: Luke 20:41-47; Hebrews 1:10-14