be thankful

Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving

Jesus invited ten men to a worship service. They didn’t have to drive or get a ride - Jesus just showed up where they were. Imagine that! Being in the physical presence of our Savior. And this wasn’t just any worship service. Ten men were invited, all ten were suffering from a debilitating illness, and all ten men were healed. Wow! Wouldn’t you want to be there?

But sadly, only one experienced true worship. Only one fell at the feet of Jesus and then rose to dance with joy. Ten left, thrilled to be healed, but only one returned to experience deeper levels of being in the presence of Jesus Christ. What brought him back? Gratitude. He came back to say thank you to God, the Creator, the Healer, the Giver of all good gifts. Jesus’ response is amazement at how few received the totality of His offer.

One of them, when he realized that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” Luke 17:15–20

Worship always begins by faith. And becomes a life-changing force in every area and moment of our lives through thanksgiving. My friends, nothing will change our attitudes, our relationships, or our response to circumstances like thanksgiving. Gratitude is when you respond in humility for all you have received, for all that Christ has already done, and is the very best way to approach the whole of our lives.

The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to be thankful in all things. . In one of David’s most beautiful psalms of worship, he tells us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, but it’s no accident that He includes the powerful phrase “Enter His gates with thanksgiving”! 

Psalm 100 shows just how entwined thanksgiving and worship are.
‘Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving;
go into His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and His faithfulness continues to each generation.’

David’s words are packed with his heart and spirit. They become so powerful that we can almost feel exactly what he is going through, even his pain.
O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage.
Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.

I am sick at heart.
How long, O Lord, until you restore me?
Return, O Lord, and rescue me.
Save me because of Your unfailing love.

When Daniel learned that men were plotting evil against him, “he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10 NIV). “Just as he had done before . . .” They wanted to kill him! That’s not the time to be thankful, is it? Circumstances didn’t matter to Daniel - thanksgiving was part of his life. Is it any wonder he came out of the lions’ den unscratched?

For the dead do not remember you.
Who can praise you from the grave?
I am worn out from sobbing.
All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears.
My vision is blurred by grief;
my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.

Psalm 6:1–7
His bones ache. His heart is sick. He has nearly passed out and can barely see what is right in from of him through his river of tears. But even as he pleads with God to rescue him, he shows his true heart of gratitude when he asks, “Who can thank you from the grave?” (see NKJV).

Even facing death, even filled with pain, even when life wasn’t following the exact plan he had in mind, even when feeling sorry for himself, David’s heart still resounded with thanksgiving. Is it any wonder he was such a wonderful leader of worship? He knew his relationship with God was not based on circum-stance, but based on the goodness of God.

Paul puts it so simply and beautifully when he tells us: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NIV).
Eugene Peterson translates this in The Message: “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”
Remember today to Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving…. In ALL circumstances. No matter what. All the time. By grace.

heart of worship

Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Psalms 29:2 NKJV

The Heart of Worship

WHAT IS WORSHIP? Worship is our response to His majesty… and as Eugene Peterson so magnificently put it, “A tribute to God when He comes.” Worship is the created—you and I—responding to the Creator. Our spirit being fueled in His presence as we invite the river of life to do in us what only He can do. A hearts cry that results in lives abandoned to following Jesus.

God’s presence defines us. It’s only His presence that sets us apart. And every time we draw near to Him, He, our great God, draws near to us. If you can casually meander through worship, then I would dare to say that maybe, just maybe, you have not entered into true worship at all. When it comes to responding in song..we need Jesus-centered, Holy Spirit–filled, passionate, authentic, messy, beautiful songs of the heart that cause our hearts to lean in.. Because when God comes close, everything changes.

Spend time today, as you start this devotional, and dedicate yourself to draw near to God’s presence afresh… He’s just after your heart.

 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23‭-‬24 NKJV

open your eyes

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  James 1:5 NIV

Open Your Eyes to God’s Vision

The Bible is filled with hundreds of examples of people getting God’s vision, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, and Micah. Seeing God’s vision for your life is not a crazy thing. God often uses a mental picture to clarify the next step he wants you to take.

I don’t have to explain this to many of you because you’re visual thinkers. When you read a story in the Bible, you can see that story in vivid Technicolor. When you read a book, you’re picturing the story in your mind the whole time.

But for the rest of us, it’s a little harder. I am not a visual thinker. I tend to think in words, not pictures.

So how do you get God’s vision if you’re not a visual thinker?

First, ask God a specific question.

In your quiet time, after you’ve read the Bible and prayed, maybe you’re just being quiet and waiting before God. You could ask, “God, is there anything you want to say to me?” And then you wait. “God, is there anything I need to know that I’m not thinking about?” And then you wait.

James 1:5 says, “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking” (CEV). God wants you to ask him for advice, and he wants you to be specific. He’s waiting for you to ask!

Second, look into God’s Word to see what God might want to say to you.

Psalm 119:18 is a verse you should memorize: “Open my eyes, so that I may see the wonderful truths in your law” (TEV). It’s a good verse to pray as you open up God’s Word. Every answer to every problem you have is in that book. But you’ve got to read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it as you seek God’s vision for your life or even just for today.

Write It Down

If you want to hear God speak, you need to withdraw to a quiet place, wait patiently and expectantly, ask God to give you a picture of what he wants to say to you, and then write down God’s responses to your questions.

In the book of Habakkuk, the Lord commands the author to “write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance” (Habakkuk 2:2 TEV).

That’s how we got the book of Habakkuk. In chapter one, Habakkuk wrote down what he said to God. And in chapter two, he wrote down what God said back to him.

That’s also how we got the book of Psalms; it is David’s quiet time. David meditated on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, and then he wrote down his thoughts, and they’re called psalms. In many of the psalms, he starts out with what he’s feeling and then ends up with what God says.

If your prayer life is stuck in a rut, and you tend to pray the same things over and over —“God, be with this person” or “Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies” — then here’s what you need to do: Start writing out your prayers.

“What? You mean I don’t have to say them?” That’s right! Writing them down is a prayer. God can hear it in your thoughts. Just write it down.

Is it OK to write out a prayer and then read it? Of course it is. When you’re writing it, you’re praying. When you’re reading it, you’re praying.

This is called the spiritual habit of journaling, and it’s one that all Christians should understand and practice.

A journal is not a diary. A diary is about the things you did. A journal is about the lessons you learned — the mistakes you made and how you learned from those things.