Copyright © 2006 by The Voice of Prophecy

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JESUS' TOP TEN WORDS OF ADVICE #5

USING THE LEVERAGE OF PRAISE

Freddie was tired of his garage getting flooded. He'd carpeted the place and turned it into a playroom for his kids. Unfortunately his house backed up against a steep hill. During heavy rains, water would wash through the back door and flood the garage floor.

After drying out the carpet several times, Freddie decided to fix the problem once and for all. He built a cinder block wall to divert the water. He put up a sheet of corrugated plastic roofing to keep rain from collecting by the back door.

Freddie was pretty proud of his handiwork. No matter how hard it rained now, water wasn’t going to flood his garage.

Two days after he'd completed that project, his washing machine in the garage went berserk during the spin cycle. A hose shook loose and shot water everywhere—completely soaking the carpet.

Even when it doesn’t rain, it pours. Ever feel you just can’t win? Sometimes it seems misfortune doesn’t just strike at random, it seems to conspire against you. And it’s natural to think, “I could be happy if only . . . “

But the truth is, even in the best of circumstances, human happiness isn’t very sustainable. In fact, recent research shows that happiness doesn’t last long even when your wildest financial dreams come true. The author of a book called “The Pursuit of Happiness,” writes this: “Even people who have won a state lottery or a British pool gain only a temporary jolt of joy.” A year later they are only slightly happier than before the windfall. University of London psychologist Michael Eysenck wrote reported this: “Major events lose their impact over time. You adjust your lifestyle and your expectations.”

In other words, millionaires soon settle down to dreading one day at a time—just like other people. Human beings just don’t sustain joy very well.

But guess what? The New Testament isn’t intimidated by all this. Against the glum backdrop of human nature it’s constantly spray painting joyful slogans in the wildest colors. There are fifty-nine references to “joy.” Eighty-one instances of “rejoice.” That’s a lot of graffiti. And what all this advertises is a joy that lasts, happiness that’s sustainable—even for mere mortals.

The New Testament does in fact show us the secret of sustainable joy. It’s found in one of the precepts it emphasizes the most. Listen to what Paul advices in his letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice.” New Testament joy is focused on God, on His character, on the hope of being with Him in the future, on the assurance of His presence today.

Happiness is a byproduct. We get it by aiming somewhere else. That’s why this word of advice is so powerful. It shows us the best place to aim--in God's direction. After all, God isn’t here today and gone tomorrow. He doesn’t get up on the wrong side of the bed. His love and grace and nurture don’t shut down for repairs. We can rejoice always when we rejoice in the eternally consistent God.
But how exactly do we do that? How do we accomplish that in the real world? Our path through life isn’t bordered by stained glass windows. It’s filled with neighbor kids who break windows and co-workers who talk behind our backs to the boss How do we rejoice in the Lord when so many things are pressing us down?

We do it this way: by developing one simple habit: the habit of praise.

Praise is direct. Praise is powerful. Praise is the most practical way we can rejoice in the Lord.

The New Testament urges us to make this a continual part of our lives: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.”

Part of the great admonition that we rejoice in the Lord always is that we rejoice in the bad times—when the washer hose shakes lose. In fact, that’s when praise works most powerfully.

Ever heard of the Greek mathematician Archimedes? He shocked people into seeing the power of leverage by boasting that he could lift the whole world—with a long enough lever. It’s all about counterweight, using an object pressing down on a lever to lift an object on the other side of the fulcrum.

Well guess what? God is the ultimate Man of Substance in the universe. He can serve as counterweight to any kind of misfortune that presses down on us. But in order to do that, He can’t just be an abstraction in the distance. He can’t just be a vague figure we call for in emergencies. He has to have presence; he has to have weight. And when we praise him that’s what happens: God inhabits the praises of his people. Praise fills in the picture. It illuminates his wonderful qualities. It makes him a specific Person in our world. Praise gives God weight in our lives.

The more heartfelt our praises, the more of a counterweight God becomes. Yes, what happened to me was bad, but look at how gracious God is. Yes that was a painful loss, but look at how God works good out of evil.

Praise gives us great leverage. Burdens become much more manageable and movable because God is big enough to counterbalance any kind of calamity.

Listen to how the Apostle Peter expanded on this idea of leverage: “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:13, NIV) Now Peter was writing to believers who were going through hard times because of hostile Roman authorities. The skies weren’t blue and the robins weren’t chirping. But this apostle asked them to focus on the fact that it’s honorable to suffer for the sake of Christ. And he promised that if they rejoiced in the bad times, they would be overjoyed later, when Christ appears gloriously.

There’s a wonderful principle here. People who praise God in misfortune are exercising their spirits. They’re resisting the pressure to give in to self-pity and despair. They’re using the leverage of praise to lift heavy burdens. Well, as a result they become more buoyant.

So what happens when things are light and sunny? They shoot upward. They’re overjoyed. It’s like a person who’s muscled up after working with weights. When he goes back to the lighter weights he started with, they feel like nothing at all.

People who just whine during the bad times don’t get any exercise in weight lifting. As a result they find something to whine about during the good times too. They lose their capacity to be “overjoyed.”

One of the most joyful people I’ve ever met was a Cuban pastor named Humberto Noble Alexander. He’s just one of those people who always has a sparkle in his eyes, like he’s just been let in on a wonderful secret. Now, after coming to the United States, Humberto went through some tough times financially. But nothing seemed to get him down.

This man spent the best years of his life in one of Castro’s prisons, all because of his ministry with young people. He suffered. He endured brutal attempts at what they called "re-education" for two decades. But he refused to compromise his principles; he refused to bend to Communist ideology.

Instead, Humberto managed to lead secret worship services in prison. He had a joyful faith--and it was contagious, so contagious that many hardened inmates wanted to commit their lives to Christ, to the Christ he just couldn't stop praising. In fact, this cheerful believer actually baptized two hundred of them! He did it right under the noses of the guards!

Humberto used to describe how he would have a candidate slip into a water trough near the mess hall as two lines of prisoners bunched up, slowly marching by. Pastor Humberto would immerse him in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then they'd slip back into line and proceed on their way.

Wonderful. But that leaves a question. Didn't the guards find out? After all, Humberto and the candidate are sopping wet, making puddles in the mess hall.

Well, this is how Humberto answered the question. "Yes they usually found out," he'd say with a smile. "But he was already baptized."

Would Pastor Humberto be beaten? Yes, probably. Would he be thrown into solitary? Yes, most likely. But what mattered to him, and what he praised God about, was that this individual had started on a spiritual journey.

Noble Alexander learned to rejoice then, under the worst of circumstances. Later, in a place of freedom, his joy overflowed.

With the leverage of praise, we will always travel light.