Hebrews 2:12 

He says I will tell your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praises. 

The author of the book of Hebrews wrote this letter of encouragement to the Jewish Christians those Israelites who faced persecution and even death for believing Christ to be the Messiah. Then these words encouraged Christians to declare Jesus as Messiah and to sing his praises in their assemblies.

Friends, we may not face direct persecution, though many do, but we may be ridiculed or scored for our belief in Christ. We may find ourselves at crosshairs with other Christians who don't agree with our theology.We may be tempted to judge those whose theological interpretations don't align with ours. 

I wonder what would happen to the arguments, the bitter disputes and the hard feelings between Christians, if we kept our words aligned with this powerful verse. What if when assembled with our brothers and sisters in Christ, instead of arguing points of theological differences, we declared Jesus Christ as our Lord and sang his praises together? 

Join me as we offer a few of these praises right now. From Exodus 15:2: “The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him, my father's God and I will extol him.” Psalm 21:13: “Be exalted oh Lord in your strength.We will sing and praise your power.” Psalm 40:3: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and trust in the Lord.” Psalm 63:3: “Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips will praise you.” Psalm 90:51: “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.” 

And, friends, as we close today, pray with me from Isaiah 25:1: “Oh Lord, you are my God. I exalt you and praise your name for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. 

Today's podcast was written and read by Bernice Howard.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.