Psalms 100:4-5 NASB
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.
Earlier this week, during worship I heard the Lord say, “Guard your gates of worship. Guard your time of praise.”
“Come to My gates unashamed and undistracted,” declares the Lord. “Do not fear My presence and do not avoid My throne room. Guard your gates of worship. Guard your time of praise. Uproot all bitterness, pull up all bitter roots sown into your hearts and mind. Clear the worshipping floor, it’s a thrashing floor, and let us purify our secret place together. Guard our intimacy and clean off all the dust, dirt, clutter, and anything that contaminates. Our time together is a sacred, a sacrificial time, a time where I receive and give, where I get refilled by you and I pour out fresh oil upon you and fill you with a new wine. I hunger for your praise and thirst for your worship for they satisfy Me, fill and overflow My heart.”
Matthew 7:13-14 NASB
[Jesus said] “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
At the beginning of last month, the Lord released a word to our church instructing us to steward a time, daily, of intentional worship. And, I believe it’s actually a word for the entire church body. Worship is one of the few times in our relationship with God where we can truly posture our hearts, minds, lips, spirit, soul, and body to minister to God with our hearts of thanksgiving; pouring out our love, gratitude, and reverence to the King of kings.
During this time of praise and worship, do it, not to receive something from Him, but rather to give Him a precious offering, that costs you something, something you can never recoup… your time, your affection, and your devotion.
Scripture reveals in Psalms 22:3 that the Lord inhabits our praise. This means that the more we praise Him, the more we will experience His presence (Exodus 33:15), see what He is saying (Habakkuk 2:1), and see what He is doing (John 5:19).
During this time of intentional daily devotion, know that He desires and honors every drop of praise we are willing to lavish upon Him as an offering—whether it’s 5 minutes or 5 hours.
Our directive from His throne room is to press in daily to steward a lifestyle of daily worship from now into the new year.
Worshipping the Lord is the most natural posture for our hearts and positions us to more easily hear and receive from God with less resistance from the opposition. This is why the enemy aims to steal or even belittle these precious moments we take to minister directly to our faithful Savior. Worshipping Him is one of the few instances in our lives where we can give the Lord of lords something He cannot obtain – our devotion, our obedience, our affection, our praise, our gratitude, our thanksgiving, our thoughts, and our hearts, all, when fully poured out upon Him fills His throne room like sweet incense (Psalm 141:2).
Consider the 150 Psalms — each is a song written by one of history’s greatest worshippers, including King David, who wrote nearly half of them. David whom God called a man after His own heart not because of his immense strength, size, or valor, but because his heart was fervently and faithfully devoted to worshiping God.
As you worship Him, enter the gates ready and expectant. Praise Him on your drive to work, posturing your heart to praise and worship our King. Enter the gates with your mind and heart already postured to pour out every last drop of your precious oil you’ve collected.
Enter in ready to minister to the Lord with a joyful noise and with an undignified praise offering that’ll cost you everything, pouring out an offering worthy of the one who gave everything for you.
And, enter in with expectation for all of heaven to join in as you praise and worship our Lord and Savior.
Let’s pray:
“Stir it up, Holy Spirit. Stir it all up! Stir up in our hearts a Spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude! Come on our souls, don’t get timid now! Awaken and make a joyful noise and praise! Awaken and make a sound of thanksgiving and worship!”
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