how to change your focal length: part 7

"O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to him with psalms!" - Psalm 95:1

This is the last one of these. Just as a recap, we've been looking at how different aspects of praise can help us to change our personal focal length, so that we're able to draw near to God and be focused on him in those moments when we're naturally drawn to focus on ourselves. The Bible uses lots of different words for praise, so I wondered whether there was anything to learn from those Hebrew expressions, and whether we could apply them today.

In science, lenses refract light and draw it to a point of focus. But you can change the focal length of a lens-system so that the thing you were looking at blurs out, and the thing that was unresolved comes into view, crisply and clearly. Praise does this for us, for so many reasons.

We saw how praise can be loud and exuberant (halal) and how testifying and shining about Jesus actually brings him into a situation and changes how we see it.

Then we remembered that praise also makes us vulnerable while we cast our hands to heaven and our praise into the atmosphere (yadah). From that vulnerability and that openness, God transforms the circumstances around us.

Barak carries the Hebrew idea of 'kneeling' in praise, and we saw how re-aligning ourselves with God, making sure we understand our position and his, actually changes the world. Barak praise refocuses us on who matters, and what doesn't matter quite so much.

Praise can be musical too. We looked at the special way that singing his praise (tehilla) brings heaven into the earthly mix, and changes the refractive index of the things we see around us.

And as well as tehilla praise, we looked at how playing a musical instrument can help you prophesy through praise (zamar). This of course applies to more than just music though - if your instrument happens to be a paintbrush, a sculpting chisel, or even Microsoft Word, you can bring God directly into a situation with skill and passion, as you use it.

To wrap up then, this week I've chosen a word for praise which I think is so powerful, so brilliant and so easy to use that it can change everything when you apply it. In fact, this weapon of praise can change your focal length in an instant, and what's more, you can use it in conjunction with all the others.

It's thankfulness. The word used is 'todah' and it means to give thanks, present a thank-offering, or a sacrifice of praise.

Todah praise is so good at changing our focal length because it shifts all the glory to the giver, and when that giver is God himself, there's no power in Heaven or Earth that can take it away - your story is your story; your heartfelt thank-you can't be disputed or interrupted or denied because it comes straight from you and connects you directly to him, like lightning. And it is secretly brilliant at diffusing difficult situations.

So, this week's challenge is to start to use the power of thank you. There are lots of ways to do this, but why not start by praying to God out loud and thanking him for things? No shopping lists, no requests, no tangents, just thanksgiving. See how long you can go finding things to thank him for. I remember when I started doing this I thought I would run out of obvious things quickly, but it's surprising how the Holy Spirit brings to mind a whole lot more. Plus, when I get really down, thankfulness is tough to do, certainly, but also absolutely brilliant at changing my focal length.

Go for it! If you practice todah praise, I reckon it will start to influence other areas of your life too; you'll become a naturally thankful person and the world around you will start to look really different.

... which reminds me. Thank you so much for reading these! I hope they've been encouraging enough to get going with loud, exuberant, joyful, vulnerable, thankful, skillful, life-changing, wall-crumbling, extraordinary praise! And that change of focal length, from seeing the ordinary to seeing the extraordinary around us, is the best change of all.