Last week I posted a blog entitled “Sometimes We Have To Be Reminded” which talked about the importance of praise no matter what we are going through. As a result the daily devotions this week were all focused on giving us ammo for our praise. (check them out daily devotions!) My whole intention was to provide any reader with just one reason to praise even if they felt like there were none. So I thought, 

It was soooooo hard for me to praise God and even do the things I love to do this week no lie! I was good until the moment I pressed send on the blog post at midnight last Sunday. I was already super exhausted after making sure I had a couple of my projects done on time and ready for release, one of these being Let Him Lead which, is available for download right now! Download Now!!!  so when I plopped down in bed I didn’t think too much about the minimal attention I gave to God in our devotion time that night. Bet if I would have taken the time I would have been a little bit more aware of what I was about to come up against.

Sunday while getting ready for church I was doing fine until I realized I would be late. It was a steady struggle from that point on. I ran into my Pastor in the parking lot, he was in such a good mood and praise-filled it automatically let me know that I was NOT lol…I literally had to force myself into praise mode and force myself to remain there. Once I was in, I was in but when I was out it took that same fight to get back there. All this and the only thing that happened was me being late…not exactly a storm! This was just the beginning of a week of fighting for my peace, strength, joy, and ability to praise.

While I hope last weeks daily devotions were helpful for you, they were surefire reminders for me that 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

If we are striving to be anything like David when it comes to praise, we should technically be praising God continuously and at all times (Psalm 34). That means no matter what! The good, the bad, and the ugly! This is totally a goal of mine.

Some days the weight of our circumstances, thoughts, and what’s going on in the world can stifle our praise. Times are hard for everyone and not everyone is able to deal with what they are facing. Because of that, there are some people who find it difficult to find reasons to praise. Neglecting to praise in hard times dupes us out of the benefits of praise. No matter what we go through YET shall we praise! (Psalms 71:14; 43:5; 42:11) Praise is a ministry tool, a weapon of spiritual mass destruction, and a method of encouraging the one who is downcast in spirit.

Just the other day I was working on a project and got extremely overwhelmed and exhausted. Because I had just been studying how important our thoughts are and how they can drive us down to pits of despair, I quickly noticed where my negative thoughts were leading me. I had to force myself to praise. The easiest way for me is by turning on music. I made sure to sing a long so that praise was coming from my own lips. (So obviously I didn’t turn it to Nicki Minaj or Nipsey Hussle radio). When the first song went off so did my praise type thoughts! I was straight back to feeling anxious and overwhelmed. When the next song was about 30seconds in I realized what happened. So once again I had to purposely