Whenever something or someone appears in an extraordinary way – not following the norm, or feels out of this world and captures our attention so much so that we place so much focus on it, there is a very high propensity to praise it. Have you ever thought about why this is the case?
In our journey on transforming our minds, we have come to the last but not the least trait Paul talks about in his discourse – praiseworthy. He says think about anything that is praiseworthy. Generally speaking, something that is praiseworthy can be subjective based on background and experiences but there is a place you get to in life where this gets objective and everyone – no matter what their reason is, comes to a realisation of one thing that is deserving of praise. For instance we look at the wonders of creation and are marvelled. But creation didn’t just come about. There is a master architect who formed everything with precision. His creation in all its beauty points back to Him as deserving of praise.
We can see who the creator is and what He did, summarised in Psalm 33:6-9 ESV, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; He puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm”. There is only one who is deserving of praise by all and sundry.
The original word used in the Greek for praiseworthy is “epainos” which means “commendable”, “praise”, “approval”. Now that we have established who is deserving of praise and the root word of praiseworthy, we can dive into the mindset governance bit. Paul urges the Philippians to think about anything that is praiseworthy. The point here is this: where we focus our minds, which is like an elastic band, most of the time or in other words, pay allegiance to – becomes our object of worship and devotion.
As Christians, we are encouraged to think in this manner. But to think in this manner presupposes there must be an object of devotion. For us Christians, it must be Jesus Christ our Lord. He must be the only one worthy of our commendation or praise for His sacrifice that saved us from the Kingdom of Darkness and brought us into His Kingdom of Light. Although this is easier said than done because there is a conflict internally – the battle of the mind, we need all the help we can get and this has been made available in the community of true and genuine believers – fellowship, corporate prayer and praise (in one word, church).
How then can we do this?
It’s important to know that there is always something that has got our attention and devotion. We need to make sure this is aligned with Jesus, His Word and His Spirit.
The first thing is to declutter your mind of idols (yes – idols are things which steal our devotion and do not represent nor align with Jesus and His ways) by constantly renewing your mind through the study (not just reading) of the Bible – and doing it in a community which can be a very helpful way as this allows you to fellowship with the believers, ensuring accountability while getting the Word of God into your heart (cf. Joshua 1:8).
Another thing is to maintain a lifestyle of devoted prayer to God (cf. Luke 18:1, Mark 1:35)- and this is not corporate prayer but personal time with God. Ensure consistency because in your personal prayer time, Jesus will direct you to His Word, but it will be more prayer with the Word, just as the Bible study is more study with prayer, using the 80/20 rule. So in your prayer and personal time with the Lord, you speak, and you allow Him to speak back to you. The most important thing here is that you don’t rush Jesus to speak so you can apply wisdom as guided by His Spirit.
When you engage in prayer and the study of the Word, you become more aware of who God is, as revealed in the life and person of Jesus who has left His Spirit to help us please Him as we journey in life to the glory of His name.
Third thing is to have a personal time of reflection (cf. Psalm 77:11,12) to recount what Jesus has done for you in times past. Doing this draws you to the point of gratitude and praise naturally follows. And I can tell you one thing for a fact – Jesus loves a grateful heart! Oh He does. He does a lot we cannot see and doesn’t have to explain to us as a Good Father will but He will always let you know the end and cause it to be in your favour. In summary, practice gratitude through songs of praise like Psalm 148 while recounting what He has done and do it with a pure heart and in faith.
Finally, practice praise. You can have times of singing praise songs to the Lord appreciating who He is. This causes you to intentionally focus on His person and makes you more aware of how real He is when He says He is with us. So go ahead, have an attitude of singing praises to the King of kings and Lord of Lords for He inhabits the praises of His people (cf. Psalm 22:3).
Inspired To Inspire! 
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