March 22, 2010, Luke 13

Key Verse:

"Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!”

(Luke 13:13)

Central Truth:

Jesus has done so much for us that our lives, our hearts, and our voices should praise Him. Loudly.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

Do you know how many different translations of the Bible there are? How about just the English versions? Me neither. I am assuming that most of us stick with our trusty old NIV. But as I was studying for this devotional today I went to BibleGateway to discover how a number of other authors translated this particular verse. There were 20 English translations available to read through and a lot of these translations use the same type of language: “she praised Him,” “she glorified God,” “she began glorifying God.” But when I got to the New Living Translation, this is what I saw: “How she praised God!”

Boom.

Did you see it? Did you notice the difference?

She didn’t just “praise God.” She “praised God!” with an exclamation point! No other translation I looked at had an exclamation point at the end. The other 19 translations all ended with a period. Now, I am not a grammatical scholar. I don’t pretend to know or understand all the parts of speech. I don’t know how to correctly use a past participle, for example. But I do know an exclamation point when I see one. It’s used after an exclamation, right? So, just to be safe, I went to the dictionary for a definition of the word “exclamation.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language gave the following definition: “exclamation: 1. an abrupt, forceful utterance.”

What this tells me is that she didn’t whisper “praise you Jesus” or mumble praise to God under her breath. She didn’t just sort of say, “Thank you God” in her heart (although that is very important – after all; it is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks – Luke 6:45). No. Instead, she stood up straight and “PRAISED HIM!!!!” Out loud. With her voice. Her heart was so filled with worship and praise and adoration of our God that she couldn’t hold it inside her.

I think that if we really understood all that Jesus has delivered us from then there would be no way we could stop praising Him. But we so easily forget all that He has done for us. He has healed our diseases and delivered us from our addictions. He woke us up this morning and gives us the breath in our lungs and each beat of our heart. But most of all, Jesus gave us Himself. He came to this speck of dust called the Earth, to die for each of our hearts. That thought alone should have each one of us screaming in praise to the God of the universe!

At some point during your day today, take a couple of minutes to think about how far Jesus has brought you. Think about the healing He has given you or the things He has saved you from. Think about how He reached out and put His hands on you from a blood stained cross and delivered you from the pit. And then stand up and praise Him. With an exclamation point!