I sat by myself, with my Bible open in front of me, waiting for a revelation as to why God had deemed fit to remove from me one of the pleasures of life most precious to me to emerged from those sacred pages. I stared at the words, hoping something would pop out that would remove the mystery, or more accurately, hoping that I would suddenly "awake" and realize it was all a big mistake and that everything was still the same. But no such miracle happened. Only the small, yet clearly audible "voice" in my head saying that this was God’s will, and I must accept it. And so, I just sat there and spilled my sad heart out to the one to whom I could spill out the deepest aches of my heart. Somewhere down the line, I said something like this to Him:

"Lord, one day I will look back on this and I will see WHY, and I will praise You."

As I finished praying that one simple fragment of my prayer, a sudden check in my spirit prompted me to a closer examination of what indeed I has just prayed. I would praise Him when I knew WHY? I was going to wait until I saw the reason for it all to praise the Lord? Immediately, I knew I was wrong. I knew that was not the way that we are called by God. Why would I praise Him then, if I don't praise Him now?

What kind of faith in the Lord do I have when I only praise Him when I know what’s going on? With that kind of philosophy, I would spend most of my time just waiting to praise Him! We are called to a HOPE that we do not see. Like it says in Romans "Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?" We have a hope in God, something that we cannot physically see with our earthly eyes. That is the kind of faith we are called to have as children of God. And as that child of God, it applies to my praise to the Lord. Even when I do not know why God is doing what He is doing, I MUST praise Him. Even if I don’t feel like praising Him, I must still choose, through an act of my will through God’s ever-ready grace, to do just that.

"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise will continually be on my mouth."