Hallelujah!

A friend of mine recently brought to my attention that the word "Hallelujah" was the same in all languages. Imagine that! The word that literally means to praise Yahweh (Jehovah, God) is spoken by people from different nations, cultures, and languages. How awesome that will be when my Jesus comes again, and we all bow down and say in one voice, "Hallelujah!"

Too often we just say words in the Christian lingo without any thought of what it indeed means. "Hallelujah" is no exception. We need to stop and realize what we are saying when we utter "hallelujah." I think of the word, "hallowed." God is so holy! Now when I say "hallelujah," I think, "How holy, worthy and pure You are, oh Lord Most High!" It is so refreshing to be in His presence and allow Him to wash away our impurities! It draws me to want to be holy and please Him.

You might think that coming into the presence of the Most Holy God would cause feelings of guilt and condemnation. Yes, if we enter in focusing on ourselves and how miserably we have failed, we may feel that way. However, if we enter in focusing on how great God is and how much we just want to be with Him, we will feel nothing but Him drawing us to Himself and giving us a desire to surrender all that garbage in our lives to Him in exchange for His unconditional, totally forgiving love! With that comes a desire to be with Him more and live a life that will reflect His light to the darkness of this world.

Think about that next time you utter, "Hallelujah!"