Thanksgiving

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5

Psalm 100:4 tells us to begin with thanksgiving. How easy it can be to come before the Lord with a long list of things to reveal, to show, and to explain to the Lord. I want to sit before Him and show Him all the places where I need Him to respond, to act, to fix, to heal, to satisfy, to make right. These are the things that I think need His immediate attention, and I know He will listen intently, although He already knows the words on my tongue and the thoughts in my head before I even begin to speak. I know nothing I bring to Him goes without His attention, and everything I put in His “In Box” receives His full attention. Yet, Psalm 100 is a reminder to give Him my full attention.

How easy it is to rush through the gates of His presence with requests ready to go and an anticipated order of the conversation. The words of Psalm 100 are a reminder to stop, set down the armful of requests and pick up a tune of praise. There is room before the throne of God for praise and requests. In fact, Philippians 4:6 says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” He tells us to bring our requests to Him, but this verse also reminds us to bring them with thanksgiving. Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving.

Psalm 100:5 begins with the word “For”. “For” in verse 5 begins to explain the reason we enter the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving: “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” I remember a discussion once where I had to answer the question of what I was thankful for. I don’t remember all of the things I said, but I remember saying: if all the Lord had done for me was die for me that would have been enough, and it is true. Jesus’ death and resurrection secured for me eternity with Him. It restored a broken relationship with God and granted me a covenant relationship with Him and a forever inheritance as His child. That alone is enough to keep me rejoicing every day! However, Psalm 100 reminds me of so much more: the Lord’s goodness, His never-ending love and His continual faithfulness. I have all the reason I need to give thanks to Him, to begin with praise. God is good, loving and faithful.

God never changes. The Bible tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). This means He is always true to His character. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” How often we can change our attitude and actions based on our feelings and thoughts which are so many times determined by our circumstances. This is not true of the Lord. These verses help us understand that the Lord is always good, forever loving, and continually faithful. He cannot be anything else because that is His character.

I am so thankful for the Lord’s unchanging character, His goodness, steadfast love and faithfulness. I am thankful He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I am so thankful the Lord hears me when I pray. I am thankful I have the absolute privilege of coming into His presence and drawing near to His throne. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

I am thankful I can bring all of my requests before Him and be assured that He hears me. 1 John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

Thanksgiving comes from a heart of gratitude. My desire is to come before Him with a heart of gratitude. To praise Him for who He is and thank Him for all He has done, and because of these things, present my requests to Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Jennifer