“I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord ! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness.” (Psalms 145:1-6 NLT)
This week my husband and I had the privilege of attending a “Tehillah Extended” that was hosted by our church. What is does Tehillah mean? “A song of praise” as in Psalm 145 above. The whole 21 verses of this Psalm are praise to God and how awesome He is! David sure loved God and knew how to praise Him!
What is Tehillah? It has been going on for years for the young people from 16 to 25 that come from all the different churches across our city to get together on a Monday night to praise and worship God. We love to go and see what God is doing with the younger generation and it is awesome! The music is amazing and these kids know how to worship God. The “Tehillah Extended” just meant that it went on for three nights instead of just one. We heard the announcement in church on Sunday morning so we decided to check it out. Anybody can go, you just need to love young people and be young at heart.
Sunday night was wonderful with the praise and worship that took place. Of course there are different speakers brought in for a fresh teaching. These kids got a different teaching on the submissive heart. Okay, I am the older generation (our kids are 32 and 29) and there was teaching here that I had never heard, yet knew it to be true. I was so excited to hear it being taught to the younger generation as they will learn and move on it.
The pastor taught on a submitted heart. How we need to totally submit everything to God and not hold back any little piece of ourselves which we are inclined to do as human beings. A submissive heart gives us full authority to walk in what God has given us. When we don’t have a submissive heart, there is deception. This helped explain so much to me as we see Christians all the time that seem to sit on the fence – a little world, a little God and we could not figure out where they are coming from. Now, I understand, they have not totally submitted their hearts to God. How can you submit to something if you have never been able to trust? This pastor said we need to wrestle with God for our submissive heart. Give it all to Him and let Him work with it.
He was also teaching these kids to “learn how heaven thinks as that is the truth to live by”. I was so thrilled to hear this, as that is how we are supposed to be living and what took me 40 years to figure out, these young people are being taught now! It was the most interesting three nights that I have seen in quite awhile, as although there were different speakers, the theme was the same! My question is: How submitted are we? Sure made me think.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:7, 8 NIV)
How God Loves Us 