Thanksgiving at the gates

1Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his^a ;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100)

Thoughts: Enter his gates with thanksgiving.  We come to worship the Lord with grateful hearts.  There are times when we come to God with heavy, worried, and grieving hearts.  But we should not come to God apathetic or nonchalant.   We should enter to God's presence with thanksgiving.  Even when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death we still can thank God for His rod and staff that comfort us.  The Lord is good.  For that, in and of itself, despite and through our circumstances, we can give thanks.  How do we know God is good?  Truth is (and this is hard for us in the post Enlightenment to understand), God defines good- for He is the giver of life and redeemer of it too.  He is there in the beginning and will be there in the end- His faithfulness continues- ever new- to every generation.  
    When the Pilgrims survived famine, and had lost so many  to illness and cold, they were still able to give thanks.  At one time they had rationed four grains of corn a day.   They were not bitter over their trouble- what good would that do?  They were, instead, thankful that God had seen them through to establish their colony which gave them (and us) a future. 

Prayer: Lord, draw me to yourself  Help me to come to you with thanksgiving in my heart for your many mercies.