Thanksgiving
Enter His gates with thanksgiving…
Ps 100:4a
This is a key scripture for understanding how to enter into God’s presence. Anywhere we are, the gates to God’s presence are open and available to us. Whether it’s a physical location, or an emotional landscape, in any circumstance our God is easily accessible to us.
Being thankful, having an attitude of gratitude, changes us on the inside and spills over into our surroundings. Like an abundant, powerful, and beautiful waterfall, God’s presence prevails over all. An example of this is the Biblical story of the Samaritan woman who Jesus tells that living water can be available to her everyday.
Thanksgiving is a choice that must come from our hearts. It is the sincerity of this choice that opens the gates to His presence. Our God has made the world, as well as our hearts and minds, in such a way that there is always something we can be thankful for. It could be something to see or hear in His wonder of creation, or something our minds may recall in memory or anticipation.
Yet thanksgiving is more than a sentiment or attitude of thankfulness. Thanksgiving is outwardly displaying our thankfulness in words and actions. Many of life’s celebrations are such expressions of being thankful to or for someone or something. When we focus our thanksgiving on God, we are acknowledging that everything for which we have to be thankful is because of HIM WHO has made it available to us.
Another expression of thanksgiving is when we enter the gates of God’s presence in an assembly or in our private time with Him. This celebration takes the form of worship, which is a powerful, beautiful, and profuse exchange of love between mankind and His creator.
Perhaps the most well-known expression of thanksgiving is when we celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving. At this time, we celebrate the love and thankfulness among us which we share. We come together to express the thankfulness in our hearts for God’s great kindness and bounty with which He continues to grace our country. Thanksgiving is a day that can bring us through His gates. We can all enjoy the power, beauty, and abundance which He has bestowed so lavishly upon us as a people, and as one country under God. Under a God who simply asks us to come before Him with thanksgiving in our mouth and hearts. In doing so, He will take us under His wings and by His great power and lovingkindness heal us, strengthen us, and prepare us for the next year of growth and harvest. Another year to find an abundance of reasons to be thankful.
…be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His loving devotion and mercy endures forever; and His Truth endures to all generations.
Ps 100:4b-5
by Karen Bonasso