Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Worship Wednesday

Last night I was searching through my pastor's blog, when I came across this post that just resonated deep in my heart. Read this profound passage and share your thoughts!

FROM PASTOR STEVEN FURTICK:

I’m working on 2 new spiritual disciplines. I’m calling them preemptive praise and retroactive gratitude.

Here’s how they work:

Preemptive Praise:
Give God the glory for His answers to your prayers as if they’ve already arrived.
After you’ve asked Him to act on your behalf, thank Him like it’s already done.

Retroactive Gratitude:
Calculate how fervently you’d be willing to petition God to get back the things you value the most if you ever lost them. Things like your salvation, your health, your children, your house, your job, and your daily bread.
Convert those would-be-petitions into expressions of praise. Worship the Lord as if your blessings depended on it, realizing He could take it all away at any time.

Preemptive praise lays a foundation for present tense blessing.
Retroactive gratitude counteracts apathy.

Together, these two habits form a powerful tag team to defeat depression and despondency. They draw our attention away from our hurts and needs, focusing our affection on the character of our faithful God.


11 comments:

Shannon Dew said...

I love this. I want to start practicing this process. Thank you for posting!

Mary Michal said...

Retroactive gratitude is something that I need to start doing. That sentence "Calculate how fervently you'd be willing to petition God." If I were to give praise with that level of energy, it really would create an attitude of gratitude. Thanks for sharing this.

THE Stephanie said...

Wooo... I just got chills! That was a great post and 2 great disciplines that would be best implemented in my own life.

Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

wow! that is a great post! I need to read it again!

QueenBeeSwain said...

this was great and I totally needed to hear that- thank you for sharing doll!

kHm

Rachel H. said...

That's awesome and something that I think we all need to hear and remember and practice daily!!

Beth Dunn said...

Thank you for reminding me! I've already done it. xo

Petunia said...

I love that! I agree that it is nice to be reminded of our blessings!

Girl in Carolina said...

That's really great, and something I really need to do right now! I might need to do a count your blessings post soon.

Hopsy said...

Thank you for this post, I love the idea of Worship Wednesday and hope you continue it.

Heather said...

This is terrific. I love the idea of preemptive praise.