Has praise become the new darling of the church--something to busy ourselves with while skirting other more demanding calls of God? Is it now "praise" instead of "love" that covers over a multitude of sins? Is it now faith, hope, and love that remain, but the greatest of these is praise? It does appear sometimes that no matter what we are doing wrong, praise will somehow make it right. ...

Praise is important, but not something to make such a big deal about when everything else God created is already engaged in the moment by moment expression of this ... as a natural course of events. ... When we admonish people to praise, don't tell them what they'll get out of it, or what God will get out of it. Tell them to praise Him simply because it is right and reasonable to do so. To attach anything more to this is to presume undue importance upon ourselves.