When trials of life come at you, and you begin to feel stuck, as if everything or everyone around you looks to be progressing towards greater things, discouragement and fear are the most common tools Satan will use to try and defeat you. He wants nothing more than to make you feel like God has left you, abandoned you, or left you to fight your battles alone, but we must not forget these three things: 
​1. God has ALREADY won! 
​2. God will never leave us or forsake us! 
​3. We have a very powerful tool that Satan cannot withstand, and that is our praise! 
​I want to talk about that third thing, and what we must do before we release our praise in the midst of the storm. You have to understand that your praise, which is a form of thanksgiving, is one of the most powerful tools we have as believers, and it is one of the most effective things we can use while we are waiting for a particular season to come to an end. Once you begin to see and accept the fullness of your praise, you will begin to see God work in your life like you have never seen before. God takes our praise, and turns it into something greater! He appreciates our praise, especially when it is hardest to do! Hebrews 13:15 says that we should offer him a sacrifice of praise with our lips, and in verse 16 it says that God is pleased with such a sacrifice.  In those moments of hardship where complain would be easier than praise, yet we choose to praise him anyways, blessing are released and God does the  things that surprise us.  
​While you are fighting a battle and waiting for the mountain in front of you to be moved, praise will get you through. It will show God that you are surrendering all power over to him therefore you trust completely in his timing and plan. I believe in order to fully commit to praising him through the storm, you must pray the prayer that precedes your praise. It's more important than you think, but it's not exaggerated or dramatic (nothing ever has to be when it comes to our relationship with Christ). 
Pray the prayer that precedes your praise!!
It means the prayer you pray with God that comes before you praise him for the miracle; it comes before you praise him for the break through.
When you're going through something difficult and you need a miracle; you need a prayer that will preceded your praise and then start praising. This step in your manifestation is crucial. It tells God that  you’re ready, and it shows Satan you’re done! It’s time to see change. It’s time to see this trial come to pass!

writing down my thoughts or the things that happened to me, I began prayer journaling for the ones around me. One day, during my quiet time, I was asking the Lord to show me how to help others. I needed different ideas because at that time blessing others through monetary means was not an option, but I didn't want to sit there like a bump on a log and do nothing. I had a desire to  bless the ones around me. I asked God to show me and direct me to different ways of helping other, and He simply responded with, "Pray for them." 
It felt so small and, honestly, insignificant! I didn't like that answer very much, but as I began to do just what He said, I discovered something that I want to share with you now; something that I believe will make your waiting time a lot less difficult and a lot more encouraging. ​

As believers, we have all needed something from God, and it's promised to us that He will provide everything we need. Some of us need something that seems so big and out of reach; nearly impossible. For others, our needs may seem rather small, yet very important to our lives. We should keep in mind that our way of viewing situations where we call on the name of the Lord, is different than how God views them. Nothing is impossible for Him. Nothing! No matter how big or small our problems seem, He doesn't see them the way we do, and they are not surprising to Him like they may be to us. We have to keep this in mind WHILE we believe. There is something else we can do WHILE we are waiting that will take the bigness and urgency off of our problems while God does His thing. We can simply pray for others. Why? That's the question I asked God when He moved me to pray for other while I waited, and I received the answer by obeying.