Hallelujah

Sunday while I was at church I noticed something that I had never really noticed before. All my life I have been worshiping and singing out the word Hallelujah with great passion and joy, without even really knowing what it means.
What exactly does Hallelujah really mean?
Can we live a life entirely of Hallelujah?

Hallelujah means to "praise the Lord!" 1535, from Heb. hallalu-yah "praise Jehovah," from hallalu, pl. imper. of hallel "to praise" also "song of praise," from hillel "he praised," of imitative origin, with primary sense being "to trill." Second element is yah, shortened form of Yahweh, name of God. Replaced variant formation alleluia.

What is so cool about this word is that, there was an entire word created just to describe the indescribable. We sing out the word "Hallelujah" all of the time in church. Whether we are using it as an affirmation, or merely reciting hymns, it is constantly a part of worship. Praising the Lord is something that our lives must be centered and founded on. The underlying theme of our existence must be Hallelujah.

"1AFTER THIS I heard what sounded like a mighty shout of a great crowd in heaven, exclaiming, Hallelujah (praise the Lord)! Salvation and glory (splendor and majesty) and power (dominion and authority) [belong] to our God!"
-Revelation 19:1 (Amplified Bible)

Lately I have been dealing with the concept of how truly magnificent God is and how often I take for granted His being and power. I am beyond blessed and fortunate that six years ago I went on a mission trip and heard a sermon that forever changed my life, a sermon that opened my heart to God in a very real way. I had the opportunity to listen and hear about this amazing God that has the world in the palm of his hand and all he wants to do is love me. I had the opportunity to learn of a spirit that can cleanse me and save me from my brokenness. I drank in the forgiveness that He promises us and my life was forever changed by the knowledge of such a loving God.

In so many ways, some days I wish that I could go back to that state of mind. Back to the state of awe and amazement of this God I worship. Back to merely praising him for letting me know him. We become so wrapped up in our own lives, problems, and stresses, that we forget to "praise the Lord." It is easy to say that "every morning I am going to wake up and praise God for giving me a new day." To plan a praise, and to check it off for the day. But Christianity is not about a check list and about being easy, it is about getting down to the hard and real aspects of life and dealing with them in a different way. What is hard is finding out a loved one has cancer, and then praising the Lord. Or suffering of injury or hearing someone say hurtful comments about you, and then praising the Lord.

We are called to live a life of Hallelujah, even in the hard times. Praising God, for essentially letting us go through the hard times to appreciate the good times that much more. From my personal experience: after my last foot surgery this summer and going back to school I went through one of the toughest times of my life. I was miserable and did not understand why I was in such a hard situation. Now that I am at Baylor I have such a unique sense of appreciation for every small detail that I give praise to my Lord that I went through such hard times. It is something that we need to remember, and constantly be aware of. PRAISE GOD!

We have been given the opportunity to live such a meaningful and fruitful life, praise God for that. He has given us salvation, and it is impossible to be thankful enough.

Hallelujah,
Meg