NIV Once-A-Day At the Table Family DevotionalSample

Praise God!

• Can you think of a time when someone praised you? For what reasons might you praise other people?
• How do you praise God?

We know that God is good. All we need to do is look around to see that. But it’s not enough for us to say, “God is good,” and leave it at that. We need to do something about it. We need to respond. We need to tell him how we feel about his goodness. And then we need to share our response with others.

When you go to a restaurant and the server takes good care of you, what do you do? You leave a tip to show your appreciation. If you find an awesome vacation spot, what do you do? You tell everyone you know about it and give them a chance to enjoy it too. We also need to show our appreciation to God and share God with others.

God gets a lot of bad press in our world. People blame him for the bad things that happen. They accuse him of being unloving or uncaring. We can work to change people’s perceptions. We can tell of his goodness and help people understand who he really is.

Dear God, we praise you for your goodness. You could treat us any way you choose, and you choose to love us, even though we’ve done nothing to deserve it. Guide our words as we tell others about your goodness. Amen.