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Daily Devotion: Psalm 100:4-5 - Thanksgiving

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Psalm 100:4-5     "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  (5)  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Many songs have been written about these verses and with these words included. What do they mean? Today, we celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving. I've listened to many people speak about their family traditions and most of them include family, food, and football. These are wonderful and fun things that enrich the day, but is it the true meaning that was intended when the day was established?  The Psalmist instructed us to include a special action with our words of thankfulness.  We are to "enter into HIS gates." The heartfelt words of thanksgiving allow us to enter the gates of the Lord, but there is a much deeper place into which we can go. Not only are we to enter into HIS gates, but He invites us to come much closer to Him by entering "into HIS courts."  It is in the courts of heaven that we experience by faith the very presence of the Lord.  

I'm thinking of the man, in Acts chapter 3, who had never walked. His friends brought him daily to the "gates of the temple" where he would ask alms of the people as they entered.  I'm sure he was thankful for the things that would be shared with him, but there was a deeper place into which he was able to go after he was healed. If you remember, he went running and leaping and PRAISING the Lord for all that had been done for him.  We are beckoned to enter into the close presence of the Lord and the entrance therein is accomplished as we thank Him for all His goodness and mercy and we begin to praise Him for all that He is.  Today, I want to be thankful for all He has done, but I also want to praise Him for His very being and interaction in my life.

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