Many homes display the model, Prayer Changes Things, and great blessing has resulted from the simple statement. We are all aware that prayer does change things. We know, also, that many times the enemy has not been moved one inch from a stronghold, although we have persisted in prayer for days, months — yes, often years. 

Prayer asks. Praise takes, or obtains the answer. I’m sure that some who read these lines may say, ‘I, too, have prayed and prayed, but I do not feel like praising God. Praise when my heart is bleeding and torn? Praise when the pressure is greatest? Praise when walking through the valley of the Shadow with one I loved better than my own life? How can I praise God at such a time? In Psalms 107:22  we find these words: “sacrifice… the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” What is a sacrifice? It is an offering to God. A sacrifice of thanksgiving is to praise God when you do not feel like it; when you are depressed and despondent; when your life is covered with thick clouds and midnight darkness. While we are admonished to pray without ceasing, are we not also commanded to Rejoice Evermore? When should I praise God? When I feel happy and when everything is moving along smoothly? When there is no trial crossing my pathway? It would be no sacrifice to praise God at such a time as this. Sacrifice hurts! It costs! 

What is a sacrifice? It is an offering to God. A sacrifice of thanksgiving is to praise God when you do not feel like it; when you are depressed and despondent; when your life is covered with thick clouds and midnight darkness.

A missionary in dark China was living a defeated life. Everything about him seemed to be touched with sadness. Although he prayed many months for victory over depression and discouragement, no answer came. His life remained quite the same. He determined to leave his post and go to an interior station where he could be quiet and spend long hours in prayer till victory was assured. Upon reaching the place, he was entertained in the home of a fellow missionary. On the wall of his bedroom hung this motto: Try Thanksgiving. The two words gripped his heart, and he thought within himself, ‘Have I been praying all these months and have not been praising?’ He stopped and began to praise God and was greatly uplifted. Instead of hiding away to agonize in prayer, he returned immediately to his waiting native converts to tell them that praise changes things. 

On the wall of his bedroom hung this motto: Try Thanksgiving. The two words gripped his heart, and he thought within himself, ‘Have I been praying all these months and have not been praising?’

This story is told of Sir Michael Costa. He was holding a rehearsal one night with his vast array of musicians and hundreds of voices. The mighty chorus rang out with thunder of organs, sounding of horns, and clashing of cymbals. Far back in the orchestra one who played the piccolo said to himself, ‘in all this din it matters not what I do.’ Suddenly, all was still! The great conductor had stopped. Someone had failed to take his part! The sweet note of the piccolo had been missed. Let all the people praise thee, o God;  let all the people praise thee. Then shall the Earth yield her increase and God, even our own God shall bless us. ( Psalms 67:5, 6). Is your ‘praise note’ missing from the heavenly choir? Are you waiting, waiting, yearning for God to answer your prayer? He is waiting to answer. Try Thanksgiving. Rejoice in the lord always, and again I say rejoice.”

At such a time as this, may we continue to not just pray (for things), but also to praise. We have so much to be thankful for. And, we have a good, good God as our loving Father!

— From a book entitled Handfuls of Purpose by Mrs. Charles Cowman.