Thanksgiving
The Psalmist says “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.” Some scholars have deemed this “The protocol of heaven,” that is to say, that if one were visiting royalty in another country (England for example) there is a protocol for what you do and say when meeting with them. It is similar when meeting with God Almighty. Similar, but not the same. Why, because God generally meets you where YOU are. He is wonderfully personal and too many people don’t understand that. He wants to meet with YOU, He wants to talk to YOU! You don’t need to go to a pastor or priest in order to hear the voice of God. There is one simple thing that you must do – be real with God.
God knows your heart anyway so why try to hide anything? He knows your thoughts, fears, worries, concerns, hopes, pride, and yes, even your sins. You see, “thanksgiving and praise” are not the protocol of heaven, but are evidence of the condition of your heart. No matter where on earth you are, you can connect with the God of eternity if you are simply real and honest with Him, because “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” “Real” people are humble people because their self-perception and world view are grounded in reality and the way things actually are. People who are proud or haughty are generally putting on a facade in order to present themselves as better than others. But as we know “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So as a humble person, you will recognize that we all (including yourself) need a Savior.
Humility unlocks the gate and then thanksgiving can begin. Otherwise we become like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14 who thanks God that he is more righteous than other men, obviously his prayer of thanksgiving was wrought with pride (which God opposes) and the gate of thanksgiving that he was trying to enter remained locked. But there was another man there who was humble when he prayed to God, and we’re told that he went away justified by God.
So humility unlocks the gate and you enter the gate by thanking God. This Thanksgiving, lets remember to be humble and real with God and others so that our thanksgiving is not in vain, and perhaps we can draw even closer to Jesus.
a simple man of God 