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Something I knew previously: Praise is joy in consummation. If one finds great joy/delight in God and His character, such joy/delight will spontaneously overflow into praise.


Something I am learning from Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will: While I am not yet far into it, it appears that Edwards is making the case (and my personal experience corresponds to this) that one acts/chooses based on that end which appears most agreeable to his mind. This is embarrassingly simple, and yet simultaneously profound.


A tie that seems to bind these two "independent" strands: Valuation. If I esteem or value God most highly, my emotion corresponds to that estimation/valuation. If I have valued God most highly, my emotions are commensurate. Thus, my joy is most fervent, and my sorrow over sin deepest. Similarly, with regard to the will, something appeals to my will based on how highly I esteem it. If I esteem God's glory most highly, choices which contribute positively to God's glory appeal more strongly to my will than those which detract from it.


This is rough yet & needs some fleshing out, but to the extent that these are true, an increasing estimation of God necessarily leads to an increasingly godly & increasingly unified* life. Yes?

*By unified I meant holistically God-besotted. By grace I preach to my own intellect on the supreme value of God. Through this, my mental value structure is rebuilt/reinforced such that God-centered emotion flows from it. A more conscious value of God as supreme affords my will a truer picture of what is eternally valuable/agreeable such that God-magnifying choices result.