Thanks Access

Enter with the password: “Thank you!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him.Psalm 100:4 MSG

Let me give you the popular version of the extract above: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalms 100:4 KJV

As the month and year draw to an end, so many questions will arise. You may ask if there is anything to be grateful for, and if indeed there is a basis for thanksgiving. One of the first things that appear as odd to me is that today's entire chapter says nothing about problems, trials and tribulations. It opens by asking me, as a part of God's creation, to make a joyful noise.

I go back to the lessons of a few seasons ago: if you have not surrendered to the right Lord, joy and obedience will be a big task. The command to give thanks is not conditioned on what I get, but on the understanding of who God is and who I am in and through him. Nowhere does he even give me regular reasons for thanksgiving; He just introduces himself to me as Lord, the Creator and the Owner of my life, and commands me to approach him with the right attitude.

The password is 'Thank you'. No matter what the NOW looks like, access is given on the basis of thanksgiving. No matter how weighed down I am, God asks me to approach him and make myself at home in him. I can never be truly at home outside of the One who made me, and I would never be abandoned or alone as long as I have defined my life by his own life.

So, my reaction isn't based first on what I can get, but on who God is. I thank God that I can approach him, no matter how dirty or battered I am, and he can be trusted to take me in, clean me up and then launch me into the world as a loving example of his power and might. His time of favour is here.