Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving and His Courts With Praise
Psalm 100:4-5 (New International Version)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
We live in a time where many are overwhelmed with fear and discouragement. This even includes those in the Christian community. Too often we fix our eyes on present circumstances instead of fixing our eyes upon the Lord and knowing that He is fully in control.
It is so important that we go daily to the Lord in prayer. Our time of prayer and fellowship with the Lord should begin with praying and thanksgiving. The purpose of prayer is not to twist God's arm or manipulate Him into getting what we want. It is actually a place of meeting where we surrender to His will and purpose and the cry of our hearts align with His will.
From these two verses we find that God is good, His love endures, and that He is faithful. To have a right understanding of who God is we must look to His word. We cannot base what we understand or believe about God based on our own thoughts. We live in a time of great deception and those who daily spend time in God's word will not only be protected from the lies of the enemy, but they will have eyes to see clearly what God is doing.
God is fully in control of every circumstance we are personally facing and all that is happening throughout the world. There are things that personally I don't fully understand right now, but what I do know is that I can trust the Lord and know that He is working all things according to His will. There is not a single moment that God is not fully in control.
Today I would encourage you if you are struggle with doubt or discouragement to get alone with the Lord in the secret place. Begin your time with Him with praise and thanksgiving. So many times we take so many things for granted. The greatest thing that God has done for us that we can continually praise Him for is giving us His Son Jesus. If God never did anything else in our lives, Jesus is enough. Because of Jesus we know that this world is not our home and one day we will spend all eternity with the Lord in His kingdom.
Prayer
Father I come to you today and ask you to simply help me navigate life. Help me in my discouragement and doubt. Help me to fix my heart and mind upon you and your purposes. Help me to let go of the fear and unbelief. Father show me your will and help me to walk in your will. Open my eyes to all that you desire for me to see.