Gazing and Praising

The secret to this difficult life is continually gazing upon God and praising Him in everything. Turning calamity into blessing is the answer and elixir for this life.

January’s Awakening, Day 11

Many have found the secret of which I speak and, without giving much thought to what is going on within them, constantly practice this habit of inwardly gazing upon God.

 —A. W. Tozer 

If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you, therefore, work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit; for it heals with a word, and turns all that it touches into happiness.

 —William Law 

Let us, with a gladsome mind,

Praise the Lord, for He is kind:

For his mercies aye endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of gods he is the God:

He, with all-commanding might,

Filled the new-made world with light:

All things living he doth feed,

His full hand supplies their need:

He his chosen race did bless

In the wasteful wilderness:

Let us then with gladsome mind

Praise the Lord, for he is kind.

 —John Milton 

            In this instantaneous, lightning-speed existence, we all want immediate results, quick fixes, a pill to cure every ailment and problem, and the elixir of life waiting at hand to drink and gain immortality and the ascension into divinity. Preposterous? Maybe not! What if the formula for the elixir is right at hand? What if it’s already a part of your God-designed nature, secretly tucked away in your spiritual genetics? Maybe the formula is all too simple and we just miss it, looking for the extravagant, exotic, and other-worldly constitution.

            Maybe we just need to tap into what’s already there—to gaze inward and upward to Jesus, our author and finisher. Maybe we need to be thankful for and embrace everything that comes our way, not as calamity or evil, but that by which God can transform anything into an ultimate blessing. The answer may well be simply a change of attitude from deep within. It’s called practicing the presence of God. Gazing upon and praising God, come what may, undaunted by it all, knowing that blessings can come disguised as tragedies. And if you’re not so sure, just look at the Cross on Calvary’s hill.