Psalm 100:4 - Part I

Psalm 100:4 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." (all verses on this site are taken from the KJV)

We are going to look at this small verse in 4 parts over the next 4 days.

Today let's briefly look at: "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving"

We should enter into His presence with thanksgiving. When I begin to pray each day, I first spend time to THANK GOd for all He's done and for answered prayers. Then I share my needs and concerns...unless it's urgent...like I know someone is going into surgery at that specific time etc. For example, the other night around 3 o'clock I woke up and I always turn our security motion light on to see our neighbor lady's home behind us - she is elderly and lives by herself. Well, the lights she normally leaves on weren't on, her car was gone, but her daughters car was under the carport. I woke my husband up and he mentioned maybe they had to take her to the hospital. I couldn't sleep. She is like a 'grandma' to our daughters and the entire family is just like family to us - since all our family is like 9-10 hours away. I started praying - now I didn't take time to begin thanking God for EVERYTHING - I had an urgent prayer "Please be with Mrs. ---, whatever the situation may be. Watch over her, Lord." I never really went FULLY back to sleep just trying to figure out what was going on. My husband got up around 7 or so and said, well, now her daughters car is gone and no cars are there. Well, that threw us for a loop again. Then around 8 (which is normally what time she gets up)... her blinds and lights began coming open like they do every morning...talking about spooky. I was like...this is crazy. So I immediately called and she answered. I told her I'd been worried sick about her and wanted to know what was going on. To make a long story short, someone around 2 a.m. knocked on her door once, then she heard them walking out in the leaves and knock on someone elses door...then they came back and knocked on her door. So she called her daughter and son-in-law to come over and check things out and the daughter ended up staying with her the rest of the night. So you hopefully get my point that when it's our 'special prayer time' (I'll call it) then ALWAYS start out in God's presence with offering our THANKFULNESS...then pray for our needs but if it's urgent...first things first as in this case.