By Bunni Pounds

Psalm 100:4 “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

There is nothing that fills us up or fulfills us more than God’s presence.

There is nothing that gets us into the presence of God faster than thanksgiving and praise.

There is not a greater lost art in the Body of Christ than breaking out of selfishness into thankfulness and praise toward God.

Entering His presence with thanksgiving opens the gates of our hearts. When we are with Him, we are complete, whole, and free.

When we walk in God’s presence – we are effective Christians because we actually walk with Him.

The Old Testament tabernacle is a clear picture of how we enter the presence of God.

In the ancient Tabernacle, there was an outer court, an inner court, and a Holy of Holies. The people would sacrifice and cleanse themselves in the outer court. The priests would burn candles and eat showbread in the inner court and then only the High Priests would proceed into the Holy of Holies, one time a year on behalf of the people.

The High Priest would stand alone in the holy presence of a Holy God, yet in perfect peace.

 Through Jesus, we are ALL kings and priests in the New Covenant, and He wants us to come boldly before His throne.  

How do we get there? We go in with thanksgiving and praise.

Thanksgiving: (according to Webster’s Dictionary) the act of giving thanks, a prayer expressing gratitude, and a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness.

Praise: (according to Webster’s Dictionary) expressing a favorable judgment on someone or something (commending something) or to glorify (a god or a saint), especially by the attribution of perfections or to express praise.

There is nothing more natural for a renewed, born-again spirit than to give praise, thanksgiving, and worship to the Creator of the universe and to the Savior of our souls. Nothing is more natural because that is what we were created to do. We were created to worship.

Biblical praise is motivated not out of selfishness, but out of complete SELFLESSNESS. It is a part of prayer.

What should be our motivation and reason behind praise, thanksgiving, and worship?

HIS WORTHINESS.

When we are worshiping and praising God, we are taking our eyes off ourselves and putting them on Jesus. We stop thinking about what we need to do as we focus on what He has done and what He is going to do. We are giving someone else glory for the good in our lives, while also committing the bad things over to Him for Him to turn around for our good. It is the most unselfish thing that we can do here on planet earth and that is why we are the most alive when we are doing it. We are who God created us to be as we worship who He is.

Because of Who HE IS

Our chief motivation for praise and thanksgiving is this: He is great, and He is worthy! There is no other reason for praise.

Of course, there are truly a million reasons to praise Him — He saved me, delivered me time and time again from my own mistakes and sins, He gave me a loving husband and wonderful children who love me, and so much more, I don’t even have to think about those things, because the fact is He IS WORTHY and that is all I really need to know.

There are so many Scriptures about praise and thanksgiving that it is hard to choose just a few – just here is a few that continue to drive home this message.

1 Chronicles 16:25 “For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods.” 

God is greatly to be praised. He is worthy. PERIOD! END of SENTENCE!

His worthiness is our chief motivation for praise and worship.

King David had a desire in his heart to build a place of continual praise and worship for the Lord. Since the time of Moses, the children of Israel had worshipped God in a temporary tabernacle. David, however, wanted a permanent place for the ark of God to rest and for the people of Israel and Judah to come to and worship. He was tired of the presence of God being moved from place to place in a makeshift tabernacle. David knew that praise and worship was the most important thing that the people could engage in, so he started collecting items to build the temple.

The following was his prayer of dedication for the offerings that were being brought from the people. Notice his motivation. Notice the purity of heart that David carried.

1 Chronicles 29:10-14 “Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all.

Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

“Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name.

But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You.”

What a grand prayer! Is there anything selfish in this prayer?

I love this part — “who am I and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You!”

David was saying it is a privilege for us to even be able to offer anything to God and to be able to participate with Him since everything comes from Him anyway. The fact that we can offer Him thanks and praise is really a miracle. Wow!

He is faithful. He is holy. He is worthy. He is beautiful. He is glorious. He is great. He is love. He is all mighty. He is all powerful. He is real peace. And on and on it goes. HE IS EVERYTHING that we can even imagine. This is our chief motivation for all praise and worship.

Created and Delivered to Praise Him

God not only made us for His glory, but He has delivered us, and is delivering us, to be His praise on the earth. We are to praise Him because He created us. He made our bodies and minds to make His praise glorious and to sing of His great works.

Psalm 139:14 “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”

If we had time to read all of Psalm 139 it would make us want to worship Him even more because of how much He loves us and watches over us. It reiterates the destiny that God Himself has given us. We are His! He knew us in our mother’s wombs and even if we “make our bed in hell” He is still there. He wants to be with us at every moment. That love compels us to worship.

Psalm 142:7 “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; The righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me.”

God is bringing us out of the prison in our souls and renewing our minds for one purpose, so that we can praise His name in freedom. He is building on His reputation through our lives. He is making us His praise.

It is His will to save us from death, sin, and hell. That is how He creates praise. The rocks and the dust of the earth can’t praise Him. Only people who are madly in love with Him will give Him the praise that He deserves.

Isaiah 38:18“For Sheol [Hell] cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth”

People who are dead and in hell will not be praising Him, so why would He want anyone to go there? What kind of purpose is that? 

God wants His created beings who He loves to love Him back and to bring thanksgiving and praise from their hearts to His ears.

That is the sweetest sound in the earth, the SONG of the REDEEMED. It is the sweetest sound because it not a sound made by people who are worshipping out of compulsion and manipulation. These are the voluntary lovers who have chosen Jesus over everything else. These are the ones who are giving Him praise.

Psalm 44:8“In God we boast all day long, and praise Your name forever.”  

When we give thanks to God and express praise to Him, we move swiftly into the presence of God. We bring our sacrifices of praise and move from the outer court to the inner court and then into the Holy of Holies. Praise and thanksgiving are not a musical style of fast songs, shouting toward the sky, or being loud. Rather, it is a heart pattern of thankfulness that acknowledges what God has done for us. We shout, we dance, and we celebrate because He commands us to. He has created us and delivered us to live for His glory and that is so worth celebrating.

He desires for us to “shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” Sometimes we must do that by faith. We might not feel like it.

Have you ever wondered why it is called “a sacrifice of praise”?

Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

Sometimes we don’t FEEL like praising. Sometimes we just want to sit down, stop singing, and never shout our praise again. It is in those moments that we are commanded to give a sacrifice of praise. It might be hard for our flesh sometimes, but we don’t want the rocks to cry out because we aren’t praising Him.

His worthiness is worth our obedience.  

We cannot be silent!

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”- Psalm 100:4

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