Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving!
Eating turkey with my Aussie family!
There hasn't been a whole lot of things I've really missed from Canada by living here in Australia, other than my Canadian family and friends. But one thing I have found that I have missed a lot is Thanksgiving weekend. It is such a wonderful tradition - a weekend of family and eating, as well as remembering to thank God for the bountiful harvest (which I decipher as the good things in our lives).
When Thanksgiving rolls around, I'm often reminded of Psalm 100.
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving grateful praise. 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
During Moses' leadership in the 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites built a tabernacle (a sanctuary). This was a place God chose to meet with His people. The layout of the tabernacle is specific as it illustrates God's way for man to approach Him face to face (in the Holy of Holies) through 7 components. Today we can still use these 7 components as keys in how to approach God. The first component is the entrance gate...
As I think about Thanksgiving, I remember the verse in Psalm 100 that says "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise". And I think about coming before God with a heart of gratefulness, while having praise on my lips.
Leigh's heart of gratefulness often centres around food.
Today, in a world where there is so much hardship and tragedy, it can be difficult sometimes to have a heart of thanksgiving and praise. But imagine wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years, trying to be thankful in that situation! We truly have lots to be thankful for, and sometimes it is just good to be reminded that God has blessed us immensely, and to credit Him for His faithfulness to us.
During a particularly difficult time, while living in Vancouver, I used to write down what I was thankful for so that I could be reminded day after day. It's amazing how quickly we forget when things are hard, and how justified we feel in our frustration when things aren't turning out the way we expect. We begin to complain, and look to God as the one who could have done more, rather than the One who has sat beside us as we go through our pain. We can't eradicate pain in a world like today, but we can see how it shapes us, and how it builds our character.
There is something amazing that breaks in your heart when you observe someone overcoming hardship and using it for good, especially a hardship that was out of their control. And I have been blessed enough to be a part of such experiences before. The feeling of amazement doesn't come when you hear complaints about their hardship - because you know it's awful for them and you feel terrible for them too, but the awe comes when you see them take their difficulty and choose to make themselves even stronger through it - seeing them walk through it and eventually come to a place of rejoicing on the other side.
So today as I process through this Canadian holiday again, I want to look past my hardships, and choose to enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, and enter His courts with praise!
Thank you Lord that you are in my life! And thank you for all that You've given me. Thank you for my children, and thank you for my family and friends. I am truly grateful that I have such a wonderful house to live in, a myriad of clothing, and food on the table everyday. But today, dear Lord, I am most grateful for pumpkin pie - oh yum yum. Thank you Lord!
Mmmmmm pumpkin pie!
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