A few days ago, the Lord began to share with me about the importance of gratitude. He asked me, “Did you know that gratitude is the root of praise?” Praise is what nurtures our gratitude. When we praise God, we declare how good He is. Every time we praise, we are professing what God has done for us. It is impossible to praise Him without having something for which we are grateful. Psalm 100 takes our praise to a higher level. This Psalm invites us to recognize that because the Lord created us, we belong to Him, and because we belong to Him, we can enter His gates and reach the courts of the Most High. If someone had said this to me a few years ago, I would have said, “That is great” and would not have thought about it again, but I few years ago I didn’t know what I know today.
Sometimes we get so familiar with portions of the Bible, that we forget that the Word of God is a living word. We should not limit our interpretation of any portion of the Word of God to something we heard once. By doing that, we can be missing a great revelation from God. In these verses the Psalmist tells us, how we can go through God’s gates. In the past, when I thought about God’s gates, I always imagined the doors of our churches, but I don't think the Psalmist had that in mind when he wrote Psalm 100. This Psalm calls us the sheep of God’s pasture, and if we are indeed His sheep, His pastures are our place of provision. Our praise is the password to God’s place of provision for us.
Have you ever stopped to consider how much time you spend asking God for blessings, and once He gives you those blessings, how much appreciation you show for those blessings? I could be wrong, but I would think that most of us spend more time asking God for blessings than giving thanks for them. Psalms 100 tells us that it should be the other way around. In fact, because the Lord already knows not only what we need now, but what we will need in our future, it is more beneficial to us to praise God more and ask Him less. By doing so, we will reside in His place of provision, and as we know, He is a good provider.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
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