Enter with Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is God's love language. He really loves hearing our words of gratefulness. This causes him great joy and pleasure. That's why he commands us over and over throughout Scripture to give him thanks.

​Psalm 100:4 NIV -  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

What is your typical approach to God? What are the first words from your lips in the morning? Your first words in quiet time? Thanksgiving? We are commanded in Psalm 100:4 to "enter his gates with thanksgiving." Let our first steps and our first words be ones of thanksgiving to God. You might be used to expressing your pain and sorrow first. Perhaps you wake up with thoughts of how bad the coming day will be. But, what God desires is a thankful heart from the very start.

Thanksgiving is God's love language. He really loves hearing our words of gratefulness. This causes him great joy and pleasure. This is why he commands us over and over throughout Scripture to give him thanks.

You might think it strange that God commands our thanksgiving. If I were to command it of you, that would not be fitting. I might be a good person, but I am not God. Actually, God completely deserves our wholehearted thanksgiving. "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:5 I would not be able to say the same things of myself. God is worthy of every ounce of thanksgiving that you can express.

Since we are often prone to follow our feelings, we wait until we feel better to be thankful. We can have a strange loyalty to ourselves over God. We might say, "I cannot give thanks, because I feel very bad right now. I don't feel thankful. And I want to be sincere… so it would be insincere for me to give thanks right now." We can use the excuse of sincerity to be disobedient. When we take the first step of obedience and give thanks, God amazingly changes our attitudes and even feelings. Obedience is always rewarded.

Practice beginning your day, your conversations, your meals, your quiet times, your work and your entertainment with short moments of thanksgiving to God. He is waiting. He is listening to you.