“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”-Psalm 100:4
According to Webster, when you are grateful you have a due sense of beliefs and benefits; and a willingness to acknowledge and repay these benefits. Thankfulness is defined by your depth of gratitude. A heart of thankfulness is a heart guarded against bitterness. One that is given to praise toward a God who gave you such things as ye have.
The gates of the city of Jerusalem, and the courts of the temple of God were a sanctuary to the people of Israel. The gates and courts were a passage to worship, and the Psalmist was giving us good instruction as to how to enter in and approach God. Today the passageway of worship is through the Spirit, for God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth; yet we must approach God in the same manner. We enter with thanksgiving and praise. All people on earth should be thankful, yet how quickly the devil and the carnal nature sweeps in to place us on the throne of all things. Twisting us to believe that we were not given these things about us, but that they came by chance. That we were not afforded the opportunity and wherewithal to gain such things as we have need of, but that they are gotten singularly by our own strength. How can one enter praise of God when he or she believes himself to be God? Christ came down and brought us truth that not only delivers us from sin but places us in the right fellowship with God. When we are in fellowship with Christ, we might obtain a deep sense of recognition that God is heaven, and we are given so much from his hand. Thanksgiving invites praise, it puts us in a place of humility so that we can bless His name and be led by God’s goodness. A heart of pride and vanity will struggle to find such a place of thanksgiving. Offering praises to God will come to him (or her) as a foreign language. It will cling to their tongue, and they will not darken the doors of a church. The place of prayer will be a strange place, and the Word of God unfamiliar. The merits of Christ lost on them, and their fruits of the Spirit barren. The one who is unthankful, and ungrateful is cut off from the blessing of thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is about far more than turkey and dressing. Football and family. It is a weapon against the devices of Satan. A sentry against sinful tempers. It constitutes our praise and frames our prayers. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)
