Psalm 100:4-5 – “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
These well-known verses remind us that we ought to enter God’s presence with praise and thanksgiving. But there are times when we sit down for prayer with such an overwhelmed spirit, that it seems almost impossible to utter a word of thanks. How do we enter God’s presence with praise and thanksgiving when our souls are so downcast? We must remember the reason we praise.
The latter part of the passage above gives us a clear reason on why we should praise God. We don’t praise Him because all is well in our world, and we have no cares or burdens. We praise Him because, irrespective of our current situation, God is still good. His steadfast love endures forever. He remains faithful to uphold the trust of those who seek Him wholeheartedly.
Praising God is a choice we make. We can either choose to dwell on things that are making us miserable, or we can lift up our eyes and remember that God still cares for us. We can fret and worry about things we can’t change, or we can choose to trust our Father who’s got our best interests at heart. When we make a conscious decision to praise God in the midst of our difficulties, we will experience an unexplainable peace. Do you choose to praise God today?
