Praise isn't how you get God on your side. It's how you take your stand on His — and that position is where the miraculous begins.
There are a handful of instructions in the Bible that make no sense at all in the natural world. Here are three of them.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
In everything give thanks. Rejoice always. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known. Read it slowly and you start to argue back. So when someone undermines me and hurts me, I should give thanks? When everyone else, including people who don't deserve it, is getting blessed, I should break into song? When I lose my job, when I bury someone I love, I should sing praises? Pastor, how on earth does that make any sense?
It only makes sense once you understand one thing first: God's commitment to you.
A love that has no thermostat
God's commitment to you is eternal. He will not change in His love for you. There is no good thing you can do to make God love you more today than He loved you yesterday. And there is no bad thing, no wicked thing, you can do to make Him love you less tomorrow than He loves you right now.
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)
When Moses tried to explain why God chose Israel, he could only land on this: the Lord loves you because He loves you. There was no better reason underneath it. And the prophet Zephaniah went further still — the Mighty Warrior who saves is with you, and He rejoices over you with singing. God is not tolerating you. He is singing over you.
Now, what about all those places where the Bible speaks of the anger of God? You have to understand the covenant. God came to man and offered a relationship built on love. Man came back and said, no, just tell us what is good and what is evil; let us be blessed when we do good and cursed when we do evil. And one of the curses they agreed to was, let You be angry with us. So when God sent a prophet to say, you have provoked Me to anger, He was speaking according to the agreement they had chosen. Yet again and again, before He was even finished speaking, His love broke back through: yet I will not destroy you forever, because I love you. Even in that hard old covenant, God loved His people and stayed committed to them.
God has no hormones
This idea is so hard for us to grasp because we assume God's love works like ours. But consider what human love actually is at the biological level. Researchers have shown that the feeling of falling in love is largely a chemical event — oxytocin and vasopressin bonding two people, adrenaline and dopamine and norepinephrine producing that rush. Those same studies show the rush fades within a few years, the chemicals thin out, and suddenly your partner has faults you never noticed. They hadn't changed. The chemistry had.
So what we call the feeling of love is, in large part, a cocktail of chemicals working in the brain. If someone injected you with them, you would feel in love. And here is the sobering flip side: what you call anger, being mad, being fed up, is also just a cocktail of chemicals working in your brain.
God does not have hormones. His love for you does not ebb and flow with time, because there is no chemistry in Him to rise and fall. Nothing you do triggers a chemical wave of anger in Him. God is always in a good mood, because He has no hormones to change His mood.
I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good.
Jeremiah 32:40-41 (NKJV)
He is always living in love. He is always rejoicing. That is His nature. He is love, He is joy, He is holy. Which means in all things, at all times, God is fully committed to you. He only has good things to say about you. He is always thankful for you.
Why you praise in the storm
Now you can finally hear why Scripture says, in all things give thanks, and rejoice evermore. Thanksgiving and praise are how you demonstrate your own unconditional, eternal commitment back to the Lord. When you can praise Him in all things — not for all things, but in all things — you are saying, I have taken my position. I am on the Lord's side forever, just as He is on my side forever.
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls — yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NKJV)
You see it in Daniel's three friends, who said, our God is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we still will not bow. They had taken a fixed position. You see it at the tomb of Lazarus, where Jesus began by saying, Father, I thank You that You always hear Me — before anything had happened. Once you take an irreversible position with God through praise and thanksgiving, you close the circuit on His irreversible position toward you. And when that circuit closes, there is no telling what supernatural fire will break out.
The battle Judah won by singing
This is exactly what we see when three armies came against King Jehoshaphat and Judah. The word of the Lord came: do not be afraid, the battle is not yours but God's. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. So watch what they did.
And he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.
2 Chronicles 20:21-22 (NKJV)
They put the singers out in front of the soldiers. And they kept saying the same thing over and over: Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. He loves us forever and ever, no matter what. They were reprogramming their own minds. That is what praise does — you say the same true thing again and again until your whole being accepts it, until it becomes your settled position. The enemy destroyed itself, and Judah spent three days just gathering the spoil, because there was more than they could carry.
Praise positions you, not God
Understand this clearly. Praise helps you, not God. It positions you. It roots you deep enough in God that you can actually take the steps needed to see His salvation. Without it, you bail out right before the deliverance arrives.
So it looks like this. Okezie, you failed the exam. Yes, I know — but praise the Lord, because His love for me is forever and ever, no matter what. The doctors have said their piece. Yes, I know — but praise the Lord, because His love for me is forever, no matter what. The account is empty and the debt is large. Yes, I know — but praise the Lord, because His love for me is forever, no matter what. You are not denying the facts. You are declaring a bigger one.
The human mind cannot fully picture the wonders that become possible when we take an irreversible stand of love toward God, in answer to the irreversible stand of love He has already taken toward us. That is what we are doing when we rejoice and give thanks in every situation. We are positioning ourselves for the supernatural.
So whatever you are facing today, take your stand before the outcome, not after it. Put the singers out in front. Say it until your whole being agrees: I love the Lord. I will rejoice over my God. I will praise Him — forever and ever, no matter what. Then stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.