Day 5 - Week 30 - Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name."

Sometimes you can really overlook opportunities for thanksgiving and praising God.  Sometimes, like when you have a miserable cold, probably flu, and feel absolutely, ridiculously cruddy, you forget to thank God for all of your wonderful days, days full of health and good times. 

Here's my challenge to me...should I wake up in the morning not feeling any better than I have today, then I'm going to say to God, "Thank you, God, for this time when I am being forced to rest and be still.  Thank you for giving me a body that, through processes not understood by me, can almost always fight off the illnesses that come into it.  You have created me in an incredible way and I trust You to work within me to bring me back to health.  You are with me always, and I thank You for all that You are in my life.  I praise Your name because You alone are holy and worthy of my praise."

And if, and I pray tonight that this is the case, I wake up in the morning feeling incredibly better, then there will be a time of praising God for working His healing within me.  I will ask Him to strengthen me to do His will through me, and not to allow me to waste good, healthy days in ways that I can easily do.  I will again give Him thanks for all that He has done for me, past, present and future. 

The point that I'm trying to make, is that no matter how things in our lives turn out, God deserves our thanks and our praise...just as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Our thanksgiving and praise to God should never be conditional on our circumstances, for no matter what, we are blessed because of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.  I know that a little case of flu is nothing compared to some medical trials that many are going through, and I know how hard it must be to find a spirit of thanksgiving and praise when you are in the middle of those kinds of trials.  But I hope that you can open your heart and ask God to show you what He is still doing in the middle of wherever you are that reveals His love for you. 

Hebrews 13:5 reminds us, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." That statement alone is reason for our thanks and our praise.  God is always with us...never leaving us...no matter what!

Day 3 - Week 30 - Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him and praise His name!"

I'm giving thanks to God tonight for what some people call a "God-wink" - just the most wonderful little moments when you just know God is smiling when you recognize some small thing that He has just done for you. 

Tonight I fixed a bigger dinner than usual because two of our grandchildren are staying with us for a few days.  I made pork chops, gravy, potatoes, green beans...the works!  Later, when I was cleaning up the kitchen, and feeling a little tired, I, for some reason, started singing an old song that doesn't usually come to mind, but that I love - "His Eye is on the Sparrow."  You can't sing that song and not get a smile on your face and a warmth in your heart when you remind yourself of how attentive God is to His children.  "Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come?  Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home?  When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!  I sing because I'm happy - I sing because I'm free!" 

Well, that was nice, but then when I got ready to get into bed and do my "laptop work" (yes, that's probably a horrible habit to get into!), I decided tonight, for probably the first time in six months, to plug my iPod into my ears and let a little music flow through my weary soul! Well, lo and behold, I hear the sweet Jimmy Durante sing back to me, "I sing because I'm happy - I sing because I'm free!"  How about that?  It was just like I heard God say to me, "Yes, I heard you...and I loved hearing you sing your praises to me!  Thank you for bringing your praises into my courts."

Praising God is good for us and asserts in our hearts the glory and wonder of God, but I do believe that God loves to hear His children praising His name with joyous hearts!

We have SO much to sing to God about---don't let your voice get rusty by not just belting it out sometimes---whatever style you prefer, S-I-N-G to the Lord!!  There are so many great hymns of the past and there are so many great contemporary Christian songs that present our praises to our Lord.  Lose yourself in some times of praise...glorify Him for all He has done!

And if you've never heard Jimmy Durante sing "His Eye is on the Sparrow" it is definitely worth a buy on your iTunes...I guarantee you'll be smiling by the time it's through, and I just bet you'll be singing!

Day 2 - Week 30 - Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name."

Thinking back to one of our verses on prayer...Hebrews 4:16, "Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time."

When I read this week's verse, it made me think of approaching God's throne, coming through His gates and into His courts.  Even though we don't live in Jerusalem and go to a physical temple, we enter God's temple whenever we approach His throne through the gift of prayer.

So how often do we enter His gates with thanksgiving and go into His courts singing His praise?  More often than not,  I approach His throne with my list of things that I need God to fix in my life, or a list of others for whom I am seeking His blessings.  Those are things that we are supposed to bring before God, and that He wants us to, but I think our entry should probably be different...I think our entry should be a little less "me" focused and a lot more "God" focused.

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving...."  thanking Him for every good and perfect gift that He has given us.  All of the tangible things that we enjoy, our friends and our families, but also those gifts that we have dwelt on a bit...the gift of Scripture, the gift of prayer, the gift of His assurances...the ultimate gift of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Savior.

"His courts with praise..."  praising Him for all that He is...all powerful, all knowing, the absolute existence of perfect love.  He is our Creator and our Savior.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, who was and is and is to come!

Just as we, as parents, don't want the first words out of our children's mouths to be "Get me this..." or, "Do this for me...", but would rather have some sign of gratefulness from them, words of affection and acknowledgement of who we are in their lives, I think God appreciates the same.

I think I usually wrap my prayer time up pretty well...but I may just need to do some work on my entry!

Day 1 - WEEK 30!! THIRTY!!! YES--I said Week 30 and that means our 30th verse!

I just can't believe we're starting our 30th week!  But believe it or not, the verses are there to prove it!  Go back and review the four corners of the Bible and the five verses of the Romans Road if you need to refresh those nine...we'll go forward reviewing the six verses of the Gift of Scripture, the three verses of the Gift of Prayer, the ten verses of the Gift of Assurance, and our one solitary verse (for now!) of Praise and Thanksgiving...

The Gift of Scripture (6)

2 Timothy 3:16  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Joshua 1:8   This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth, you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.  For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

Psalm 119:11  I have treasured Your words in my heart so that I may not sin against You.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6  Listen, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.  These words I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:7  Repeat them to your children, talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

Hebrews 14:12  The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints and marrow.  It is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.

The Gift of Prayer (3)

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.

1 John 5:14   Now this is the confidence we have before Him, whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

1 John 5:15   And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

The Gift of Assurance (10)

1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony:  God has given us eternal life and that life is in His Son.

1 John 5:12-13  The one who has the Son has life.  The one who doesn't have the Son of God, does not have life.  I say these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life.

John 14:1  Your heart must not be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansion, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3  And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you unto Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Your heart must not be troubled or afraid.

Isaiah 26:3-4  You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You.  Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed . (KJV)

Isaiah 53:6  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquities of us all.

Praise and Thanksgiving (4)

1 Peter 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  According to His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And our THIRTIETH verse....

Psalm 100:4  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

I feel that's what I did in a way tonight...I entered into a "court" with 35 other Christian women to study God's Word and to sing His praise!  We gave thanks to Him and praised Him...we listened to straight, godly teaching by Kay Arthur, and we started a new 7 weeks of study to take us "deeper still." 

It is so good for God's creation to bring praises before Him!!  In praise, it seems our hearts become gladdened by establishing Who it is that is in control and so surrender before Him.   

....and I will praise His name!  He is the Lord, forever His truth shall reign.

Day 7 - Week 29 - 1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

"...a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Remember our verse several weeks ago, Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

There is something critically important about the resurrection of Jesus.  Our belief in His resurrection is stated as a requirement to our salvation, and Peter states that it is through the resurrection that we are given a new birth into a living hope.

Christ's resurrection sets Him apart from every other living being.  People saw Him physically die, His body was lain in the grave, and He arose!  Because of His resurrection, we know that we will follow Him into a resurrected life. 

John MacArthur states,

The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns...Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation.

But instead of wishful thinking, we have living hope! 

On nights like tonight, when I'm wondering HOW in the world I have gotten a cold this early in the season, I thank God that I have the certainty of my own resurrection, to live with Him forever, where I will never be in need of a Kleenex or a decongestant!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I love to sing His praises now, and I will love to sing them with the chorus of angels...for He alone is worthy!

Hallelujah and Amen!

Day 6 - Week 29 - 1 Peter 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

On a day like today, when we remember the sadness and tragedy of ten years ago, we should especially be able to recite this verse with fervency and gratefulness.  For when this world falls apart and things happen that make absolutely no sense to us, we can still take heart in the fact that we have a God who has provided a way for us to have a living hope through the new birth that we experience when we become children of Him. 

This living hope keeps within us, every moment of every day, the certainty of our lives continuing past the lives that we see now into life eternal, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Without that living hope, life would be a futile exercise in surviving tragedy after tragedy. 

I have that living hope - a hope that is difficult to explain - but one that gives this life a whole other dimension.  I pray for those who lost loved ones ten years ago and that they have found the living hope that comes through faith in Christ.  I'm not sure I would be able to make it through a tragedy like that without the assurance of the promises that faith in Jesus provides. 

Ten years later...it has gone fast, hasn't it?  And there have been so many other tragedies in those ten years that other people have gone through, and we will experience more in the future.  "For in this world you will have trouble,"  Jesus said.  It is not a probability, it is a certainty.  Tragedies of smaller scale than 9/11, but on personal levels, tragedies that will be just as devastating to the affected families. 

I pray for each of us tonight that we build on the faith that we now possess so that our "living hope" will spring forth at the times that we will need to lean into it the most in order to reassure us that we our children of an eternal God, created for eternal lives. 

God bless all of the families affected by the events of 9/11/01...and God Bless America!