God created humankind with the ability to choose: good or evil, right or wrong, self or others, God or Mammon. We were designed to live in eternal loving fellowship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sharing a love that is not coerced or mandated.

What if we could choose a natural physical need that supplied life, such as a beating heart, drawing a deep breath into our lungs, or food? All are requirements for life, but not daily rituals that we can choose or ignore. We treasure food when we’ve gone without; we cherish oxygen when we experience the lack of it. We were created by God with daily physical needs. The same is true of our spiritual lives. Choosing to praise God is life-giving, and, as such, a necessary daily habit.

They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening.  (1 Chronicles 23:30, NIV)

“Praise God each morning and evening” was on the task list King David assigned to the Levites, who were called to faithfully serve the people of God. God created humankind for fellowship and loving relationship with Him, an echo of the loving interaction of one God in three persons—the Trinity. David instructed the spiritual leaders of the Israelites to express their love for God with praise—and in doing so, their faith was activated.

In Jesus’ day, Pharisees knew that praise was a weapon that the Jesus-followers used against them. They hated that people praised Jesus and insisted He make them stop. He refused their demand, because praise is a necessary ritual of the world He created.

“If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise.” (Luke 19:40, MSG)

Praise is a weapon that we, too, can choose to wield—so strike the match that lights the fire of our faith inside us. The devil hates it when we praise God.

[Taken from the section on “Praise” in Strike the Match, Light the Fire, a book describing the Chain Reaction that begins with praise > faith > prayer > overcome evil > reign and rule.]