Praise and Worship Part Two: Thankfulness the Key to the Gates

      

Psalms:100

 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
² Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
³ Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;^[a]
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,

    And His truth endures to all generations.

Have you ever been disappointed? I am almost positive that every one of you who read that first statement instantly had a pretty strong emotional response to it. I know this most likely happened to you; because, it happened to me when I was writing it. We have a strong response because it is impossible to get through this life without facing some form of disappointment. There is no human being that has ever lived that was beyond disappointment's touch. In fact, Jesus also faced disappointment. If you don't believe me then just check out Mark 14, where Jesus is praying in the garden before he is betrayed and crucified. Here Jesus asks his disciples to pray with Him, and they fall asleep after only a few minutes. When Jesus comes back to where they were sitting, He finds them sleeping instead of praying. He was disappointed to find that they had all fallen asleep in His time of great need. Now, unlike Jesus, we all have a tendency to allow disappointment to fester and grow in our hearts till it becomes the tool the enemy uses to destroy us; or at the very least, to steal our joy from us.  The bible says in Nehemiah 8:10 that: the joy of the Lord is our strength; so when the enemy steals our joy, he likewise steals our strength. This fact is why God made it a point to stress to the Israelites and to us as Christians in Psalms 100, that the avenue with which we enter into his is gates is Thanksgiving. You see thankfulness is the antithesis of disappointment; or rather, thankfulness is the tool God uses to break disappointments power over our lives. 

What exactly is Thanksgiving? Webster defines thanksgiving as: 1:  the act of giving thanks

2:  a prayer expressing gratitude 3a :  a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness. So, according to Webster, thanksgiving is the act of giving thanks. The definition God gave to me is very similar to Webster definition; what He told me thanksgiving was is, the act of cultivating a lifestyle of thankfulness. On the other hand, Webster defines disappointment as:  the act or an instance of disappointing :  the state or emotion of being disappointed. Moreover, Webster defines disappointed as: 1:  defeated in expectation or hope 2 obsolete :  not adequately equipped. So disappointment is literally allowing our hearts to be in a place where we are defeated in expectation or hope. So if thankfulness is the antithesis of disappointment; and disappointment is being defeated in expectation or hope, then thankfulness is cultivating an attitude of hope and expectation through being thankful for what God has already done for us. A person can not stay defeated and without hope if they are constantly being thankful. You can not steal the joy of someone who you can not make disappointed, it just isn't possible. Well, this is all fine and good but how does his apply to

Praise and Worship and entering in? I'm glad you asked, because I was just about to get to that part.

In Psalms 100 God tells us that the only way we can enter into his gates is through thanksgiving; which also then means, that disappointment is one of the things that can prevent us from entering in to His gates. You see what God knew about people then still applies to us today. He knew that when we get disappointed we stop believing and start falling into a place of defeat where we lack hope. When this happens we pull back and stop trusting God. This then effects our desire to be near Him. I don't know about you, but when I feel disappointed by someone the last thing I want to do is be close to them. Well now brother, just because I am disappointed does not mean I believe it is Gods fault. Where as that may true in your mind, disappointment has a way of infecting every area of our hearts; even, our relationship with God. You can not and will not draw close to God if you do not trust Him. Since the very definition of disappointment is to be defeated in expectation and hope; then, it stands to reason that if disappointment has infected your heart, you will not trust God enough to draw near to Him.  Worship is the act of blessing God by worshiping Him for who He is. If who He is to you is a God who disappoints; then you can not reach a place of worship, because there will always be a wall of disappointment standing in your way. The only way to break down that wall is to cultivate a thankful heart. What was it that made the Three Hebrew children and Daniel stand out from all of the other Israelites? It was the fact that they did not allow the disappointment of their situation to steal their thankfulness; and thereby, steal their trust in God. Daniel refused to see the lions den and the wrathful king, and instead decided to be thankful that God had shut the mouths of lions. The three Hebrew children did likewise, and instead of being defeated in expectation and hope by the disappointment of the fiery furnace; they rather, were thankful to their God for their deliverance before they were even thrown into the furnace. All of these biblical heroes knew what God knew when He made the statement in Psalms 100 about thankfulness. They knew that by cultivating a heart that is thankful to God for  what he has, can and will do for us, will shatter the power of disappointment in our lives thereby stopping it from keeping us back from the presence of God.

Moreover, praise and worship are both acts of blessing God and not ourselves. Where as it is impossible to come into contact with God and not be blessed or changed by Him; worship and praise, are institutions that were not designed for our blessing, but rather for Gods. In order to be in a place where we are thankful, we have to be in a place where we are no longer consumed with self; and, how can we bless God with our whole hearts, if our hearts are completely focused on ourselves? The answer is, that we can not. It is impossible to bless the Lord if we are completely focused on ourselves and our own problems. Cultivating a heart of thankfulness allows us to get to that place where we change our focus from ourselves and onto God. Disappointment prevents us from doing this by always keeping our focus on ourselves and what we perceive God has not done, instead of what he has and will continue doing.  I used to believe that the main reason that thankfulness was important was because it drew the heart of God. Whereas, this is a true principle, the more important person it draws is me. Thankfulness cultivates in us a desire to draw close to the Lord and to bless Him; and since Praise and Worship is about blessing the Lord and not ourselves, cultivating an attitude that creates in us a desire to bless the Lord is one of the most important things we can do. These principle also apply to Praise, and it is why God links them synonymously with each other as gateway principles that open up the doors to the Holy of Holies.  So since we now have unlocked the gates with thankfulness lets enter in to His courts with PRAISE...