21 Days of Praise

Introduction

21 Days of Praise is a guide to your spiritual praise journey that will help you discover a more intimate relationship with God. It will prepare you for a lifetime of seeking His presence and continuous praise. It will help you experience twenty-one days of transformation and maximize your personal connection with God.

He wants your greatest gift: your time. Each day you will have a key Bible scripture to meditate on and ample journaling space to reflect on what He is saying to you and to shower Him with powerful words of purposeful praise.

You are not reading this book by accident. God wants you to go to the next level in Him. Do you have the courage to praise Him on purpose? If you do, I am convinced that by the end of this journey, you will have a new way of thinking, praising, speaking, writing, and living. A new you! May this journey help you to become all that He has created you to become.

I thank God for choosing me to go through this journey with you. Praising Him has delivered me from just seeking His hand to seeking His face. It has taught me to love Him, praise Him, and know Him even more. I am forever grateful for this journey and honored to be your guide. I pray my words will honor Him, bless you, and lead you to a more abundant life in Him. 21 Days of Praise has led me to a greater journey of spirituality and self-discovery. I pray it does the same for you. The hand of God is on your life.

Chapter 1

My Praise Journey

After a twenty-one-day church fast at the beginning of the New Year, which was designed to create a closer spiritual relationship with God, I sensed in my spirit that something was missing. There was a nagging pull on my heart that would not allow me to be content with the fast. I heard the Holy Spirit speaking to me. He said, “You have asked God for everything you wanted on the fast, so now go for twenty-one days of thanking Him. And don’t ask for anything. Just thank Him for everything.”

The first time I heard it, I thought it was an awesome idea but didn’t take action. I got caught up in the everyday concerns of life and forgot. However, a couple of months later, the Holy Spirit brought back to my spirit that I needed to do this time of thanksgiving. This time I took action. I talked to my family and asked if they would join me on twenty-one days of thanking God. They agreed. I started sending them daily text messages.

Understanding the importance of the Word of God, I knew that the first text had to be a scripture. I also sent an “I thank God” text and a Christian music video. Not knowing what to write, I kept the “I thank God” text short and simple. As I began to have a deeper, more intimate relationship with God, the text became more encouraging. Also, the music became an unexpected inspiration that encouraged me. It seemed like everywhere I went there was praise music lifting my spirit. At church, the praise songs ushered me to a higher level of praise. The more I praised God, the more I wanted to praise Him. This put me in a place of peace where I could listen and hear from Him.

Honestly, there were days that my schedule was busy and I didn’t feel like looking for scriptures or videos on the Internet—especially when I was on vacation—but I pushed past my busyness and tiredness and kept my commitment. It helped when my family commented on the daily text or sent words of encouragement. However, there were days when I didn’t hear from anyone and felt that no one was even reading the text messages, but I knew that I still had to keep going because I wanted to be faithful to God.

God is good and has honored my faithfulness in many ways. As a result, my husband joined the praise team at our church. I also became more involved. I enjoy church more, and I am even more excited about praise and worship and the teaching of the Word of God. I even taught my granddaughter to thank God more.

A couple of months after starting my praise journey, I attended award winning business/success coach, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and author Dr. Stacia Pierce’s Ultimate Success Tour. Dr. Stacia is the CEO and founder of Lifecoach2women.com, which is an empowering website and expert coaching program that inspires women to reach their fullest potential in business and in life. While there, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the twenty-one days of praise was a book. I never imagined that God was going to take my personal praise journey and put it into a book to encourage others to praise Him. I believe that because I was obedient, He blessed me with this book. The Holy Spirit has been the inspiration for the book and the title: 21 Days of Praise: Seeking God’s Face Instead of His Hand. I knew when I heard the title that I had to go to the next level and not just thank God for the things He has done but also had to seek His face and praise Him for who He is.

My praise journey of sending out the text messages to my family still continues to this day and will continue until the Holy Spirit releases me. This journey continues to increase my faith and bring me closer to God. It has helped me to discover a deeper relationship with Him. I feel more of His peace, love, and presence. By praising Him, my joy has increased. I am happier than I have ever been. Praise God!