“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” – Psalm 42:11

Madeleine L’Engle describes how her young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time was dismissed by eight publishers before it eventually landed with the publishing house of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. For L’Engle, the decade of her thirties was set on the spin cycle of rejection. 

On her fortieth birthday, her husband called L’Engle in her writing studio to say that another rejection letter had come from yet another publisher. In a fit of melancholic despair, L’Engle shrouded her typewriter with a sheet. She would never write again. 

Thankfully, her resolve did not last long. L’Engle asked for the manuscript back from her agent, and it arrived as a heavy parcel of bundled typewritten sheets. Two weeks later, with the manuscript in her possession, she was introduced to another editor. He asked to read the manuscript. In another week, she had signed a contract to publish Wrinkle. 

When the book was rejected by publisher after publisher, I cried out in my journal. I wrote, after an early rejection, “X turned down Wrinkle, turned it down with one hand while saying that he loved it, but didn’t quite dare do it, as it isn’t really classifiable. I know it isn’t really classifiable.... but this book I’m sure of. If I’ve ever written a book that says what I feel about God and the universe, this is it. This is my psalm of praise.”

No matter where you are today, on the mountaintop or in a valley, Praise the Lord!

“God gets some of His richest praise amidst dying groans—and He gets delightful music from His people’s triumphant cries.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

God’s Word: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” – Acts 16:25

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2025, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

“Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.” – Psalm 34:3

In his book “Who’s That Knocking On My Door” author Scott Bowerman writes: “The Rule of Benedict is a document that has ordered the life of Benedictine monks for 1500 years. That remarkable document, written by Saint Benedict of Nursia, instructs the monks in how they are to live their daily lives together in community. One of the things that Benedict describes is a particular role, the “porter” of the monastery.

The porter is the one who opens the door to the monastery when someone knocks. Not much of a role, you say? Ah, but there is so much to it, so much entailed, and so much communicated in how one opens a door. Roman Catholic nun and author Joan Chittister goes so far as to say, “The way we answer doors is the way we deal with the world.”

In the Rule of Benedict, the porter is given very specific instructions. He is to sleep near the entrance to the monastery so he can hear and respond in a timely way when someone knocks. Then, as soon as anyone knocks, likely a poor person because they often sought refuge in monasteries, the porter is to reply, “...Your blessing, please.” That's before he even knows who is on the other side of the door. Before the porter knows who that person is or why he or she is there, he is to praise God for that person's presence and to ask for the person's blessing.”

Praise does not have to be extravagant, only heart felt. Today in prayer, Praise the Lord Together singing “Alleluia”.

“Praise the Lord together singing

Alleluia alleluia alleluia

Praise the Lord together singing

Alleluia alleluia alleluia

Praise the Lord together singing

Alleluia alleluia allelluia

Praise the Lord together singing

Alleluia alleluia alleluia

Praise the Lord together singing

Alleluia alleluia alleluia” – Kim and Karen Mitzo

God’s Word: “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” – Psalm 69:30

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2025, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” - Psalm 90:14

In his book “The Case for the Psalms”, N.T. Wright wrote: “Good liturgy, whether formal or informal, ought never to be simply a corporate emoting session, however “Christian,” but a fresh and awed attempt to inhabit the great unceasing liturgy that is going on all the time in the heavenly realms….

The Psalms offer us a way of joining in a chorus of praise and prayer that has been going on for millennia and across all cultures. Not to try to inhabit them, while continuing to invent nonpsalmic “worship” based on our own feelings of the moment, risks being like a spoiled child who, taken to the summit of Table Mountain with the city and the ocean spread out before him, refuses to gaze at the view because he is playing with his Game Boy.”

Each morning is a fresh start in our eternal life with Jesus. Today in prayer, start by praising the Lord.

“When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

God’s Word: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” – Psalm 5:3

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2025, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

“‘But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” - Romans 9:20

In life, whenever someone achieves success, criticism usually follows—regardless of their skill or the effort they’ve invested. An old story illustrates this truth. A woman crafted artificial fruit so flawlessly that people couldn’t tell it apart from the real thing. Yet, critics never ceased to find flaws, pointing out supposed imperfections in color, shape, or texture. One day, as they gathered around a display of her work, they singled out an apple, insisting it looked particularly fake. When they finished, the woman calmly picked up the apple, sliced it in half, and took a bite. It was, in fact, a real apple.

The opposite of praising God is mocking and criticizing Him. Today in prayer, confess any sin of criticism and praise the Lord for He is good.

“The most insanely daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly foolish thing any man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any man can do, is to reply against God, to enter into controversy with God, to criticize God, to condemn God. Yet that is what many people are doing.” - R.A. Torrey

God’s Word: “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘You did not make me’? Can the pot say to the potter, ‘You know nothing’?” - Isaiah 29:16

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2025, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." - Romans 1:21

In his book “Prayer” Pastor Timothy Keller writes: “Cosmic ingratitude is living in the illusion that you are spiritually self-sufficient. It is taking credit for something that was a gift. It is the belief that you know best how to live, that you have the power and ability to keep your life on the right path and protect yourself from danger. That is a delusion, and a dangerous one.

We did not create ourselves, and we can’t keep our lives going one second without his upholding power. Yet we hate that knowledge, Paul says, and we repress it. We hate the idea that we are utterly and completely dependent on God, because then we would be obligated to him and would not be able to live as we wish. We would have to defer to the one who gives us everything.”

We need to be grateful for all the Lord has given us. Today in prayer, confess any sin of ingratitude and be thankful to the Lord.

“Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never seen that clever men have been ungrateful.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

God's Word: "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy" - 2 Timothy 3:2

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2025, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING  †