Entering in with Thanks

By Kyla McCormick

When asking the Lord what to write about for November I immediately thought of thanksgiving. Like most, I celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving during November and enjoy taking the time to reflect on all that I am thankful for. However, there is so much more to thankfulness than the holiday or even just thinking about it.

Scripture has much to say about being thankful and as I inquired further, Psalm 100 came to mind. It reads:
Psalm 100 - A psalm of thanksgiving
Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his — his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.
For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.

There are days when I wake and as I’m getting the house ready to leave, I quickly pray for my family and the day ahead. I know that I need to touch base with Him but it is quick and He is not always my first thought. The Lord has truly created us for so much more than just a passing thought. As verse 3 says, He has made us and we are His! Let that really sink into your heart. We belong to the Most High, the Creator of everything. The Lord truly is good, His love endures forever and He is faithful always! In just a few verses we can see that He is more than deserving of our thankfulness and worship.

In verse 4 of Psalm 100 is says; enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. Psalm 95:2 says; let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving; lets shout triumphantly to him in song. In these verses the Lord is telling us that to come into His presence we must do so with thanksgiving and praise. I know that when I take the time to remember who God is and what He has done, that it changes the posture of my heart. It helps me to let go of all that is going on within my mind and brings my focus back to Him. Coming to Him in thanksgiving and praise opens the gates and allows us into His presence.

When we begin to practice entering into His presence with thankfulness, we learn to shift from ourselves to Him. It is the place where we meet with Him and allow Him to work within us. The place where we learn to listen and to trust Him. It is where our relationship with Him becomes deeper and more intimate. This my friends, is the place to be. Ultimately it is from this place that we are able to say “here I am Lord”. The Hebrew word for “here I am” is hineni, meaning a sense of full availability, total presence, readiness or obedience, and willingness to serve. Our thankfulness allows us to enter in, for Him to work within us and prepares us for what He has created us to do as his sons and daughters here on the earth!

1.) I invite you in the next month to take time each day to just sit with the Lord for 10-15 minutes. Begin your time by thanking Him for who He is. If you are unsure how to start, Psalm 100 is a great prayer. I also find that this is a great way to begin your day.

2.) As you spend time with Him I encourage you to write about the changes you notice. You may notice changes in your attitude, your desires, your connection to the Lord and how you connect to others. The Lord has so much that He wants to share with YOU.


Prayer:
Lord we come before you so thankful that you are God and that we get to be called yours! Lord we thank you for your Word. We thank you that you have given us all we need to live this life according to your will for us. We thank you for loving us and for your sacrifice that has allowed us to enter into your presence. God, we pray that as we practice coming into your presence that you will give us a desire for more of you. That our understanding of who you are will grow as well as our need for you. Lord you are so good and we thank you that we get to have a relationship with you! We pray that you will abundantly bless the time that we spend with you. We ask and pray all of this in your name Jesus, amen.