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If I Feel Like It

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 1.

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If I Feel Like It.

By Nason Hoyt

An article appeared in the REVIEW some time since, entitled “The Christian’s Shout,” which I think it would be profitable to reprint. It may do some other one as much good as it has me. I have tried the rule laid down nearly every day since reading it, and sometimes a good many times a day; and the result has invariably been a victory in the name of the Lord. And, though sometimes it has almost seemed like mockery to praise God for a victory before I had the evidence that I had a victory, yet, when I have claimed a victory in the name of the Lord, and praised him for the victory, the enemy has fled apace, and divine peace has filled my heart.
On looking over the many exhortations in the Bible to praise God, and seeing that we are so often brought under obligations to praise him, I have made up my mind that it is my duty, and that it shall be a part of my daily employment, to praise him whether I feel like it or not. The psalmist says, “Let everything that hath breath praise God,” not everything that feels like it. “Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me;” not, Whoso feels like it. And again, “Every day will I bless the Lord;” and he does not add, If I feel like it.
If we do not feel like praising God, we do not feel right. I have often felt that it would be mockery for one so unworthy as I am, and one so sinful, and God could not accept the praise of so cold a heart as mine; yet, when I have attempted it, God has seemed to accept the offering. My heart has been filled with his love, and I would hardly know where to leave off praising him. And I am now resolved that, through the remainder of my life, a portion of my everyday employment shall be praising God whether I feel like it or not.
Nason Hoyt.
Howard Co., Iowa.