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A Decision Of The Heart

According to this psalm, the way into God’s presence is through the ‘gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise’. Without making this a ritual, I found this is the most beautiful way of coming to God in prayer each day and just spending precious time with Him.

I can picture the ancient Hebrews arriving at the temple courtyard, being engrossed by a ‘spirit of gratitude’ and thanking God as they entered the gates, starting to praise God exuberantly as they came to make their annual sacrifices.

I have realised that throughout the psalms thanksgiving is almost always related to salvation. So how fitting it is to thank God firstly for His great salvation through the Lord Jesus. The next step would be to praise Him for specific things He’s done for us – like answering our prayers or meeting our health or financial needs.

I’m pretty sure God would love to hear our praises for specific things that He’s done for us. Praising God for specific things is putting content into your praises. So, let’s tell Him exactly why we’re praising Him.

In the USA, Thanksgiving week is about thanking God for specific things. People who have an attitude of thankfulness are usually pleasant people with positive attitudes. The world is full of negativity, doubt and ungratefulness but as a Christian you live in a higher Kingdom, above the negative kingdom of fear. Remember, thankfulness is not an emotion but a decision of the heart.

Written by DAVID SMETHURST