It says in the bible that we are to praise God without ceasing. That in some ways can be a bit difficult depending on what you include in "praise". We can praise God in all that we say and all that we do. In fact it can become such a natural part of our lives that we don't always think over it. We can live our lives to God's praise and glory.
It is however not always easy to consciously praise God all day long. Our time and energies have to be spent on other things some of the time. The underlying life of praise can always be there though. I love to worship God by singing hymns and songs. He has not blessed me with a good singing voice but I deccided long ago, He gave me my voice so he must think it is worth listening to so I sing praise to him anyway.
I noticed years ago that when I take time to praise God and lift my voice to Him with words and songs of praise, my spirits get lifted. An hour of praise and worship and I am no longer feeling sorry for myself or fed up. The days when I really need to praise God are the days when it is hardest to start praising Him and those are of course the days I need to praise Him most!
When I pray I find it easiest to come close to God if I begin with praise. A good worship cd can make all the difference to me. I know a number of people with the gift of intercession and they all say that they begin praying with a time of thanksgiving and worship and then move on to prayer in the traditional sense.
There is something important here I think. When we worship God he gives us his peace and his joy as a gift. From the earliest times praise and worship have been key. When we look at Jesus and his encounters with people there is always an element of thanks and praise. We are called to it by our heavenly Father. If you have not tried to praise yourself into a better place / mood / situation then try it. You will be surprised what God will do when we move our focus from ourselves and on to him!
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