As we gathered to share our thoughts on this week’s bible study about worship, we all agreed on one thing. It didn’t include the place or time, the style of music, or when to have the offering. No one mentioned hymnals or screens. No, the one theme mentioned throughout our time together when it comes to worship was gratitude.
I would say it was pure coincidence that the topic of gratitude came just before we enter the month of November. A season when I intentionally practice giving thanks and praise, but I don’t believe in coincidence. I realize Thanksgiving is not a holy day in scripture, but you will find praise and thanksgiving all throughout the Bible. And I practice it with good reason, because I’m prone to forget, to see all the things that need fixing, to get stuck in the mud and mire of the trouble in this world.
It is the simple nature of our broken condition. Which means gratitude doesn’t come as naturally as it did before sin entered the picture. There used to be a time I was much more likely to complain than to give thanks.
Which is why every November I practice.
Yes, that’s right. I practice. Like a pitcher throwing strikes, a dancer doing the same turn over and over, or a musician playing scales, practicing builds muscle memory.
I know that’s exactly what I will need when life gets hard, and there’s more sorrow than joy. I’ll need the automatic response of thanking God when times are tough, and I certainly don’t feel like saying thank you.
Choosing gratitude even in the difficult, makes room in my heart to notice God’s presence. The Psalmist must have known this little secret when he penned the words of Psalm 100.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.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.
The image of a white country church with a picket fence stirs my soul when I read: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
This may sound a bit weird but imagine with me for a minute your desire to enter the sanctuary. The place where God’s presence is so real you can feel it, maybe even touch it.
Before you get there you have some steps to take. It’s as if giving thanks opens the gate and offering praise is the movement that brings you into a space completely filled with God. A place where you worship with abandon the God who restores and redeems.
This is why I practice. The reason I set aside a season to offer thanks and praise. For me, practicing establishes a sense of gratitude that leads me to worship. Not just on Sundays but in every moment of every day.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIV
Won’t you consider joining me in the practice of gratitude? Let’s set aside this month to intentionally give thanks and praise daily until we discover it’s so deeply engrained in our hearts we aren’t just practicing being grateful. We are grateful.
My heart was deeply impacted by Ann Voskamp’s book one thousand gifts. In it you will find a challenge to make a list of one thousand things to be thankful for. Perhaps the number is steep for the month of November, but maybe 100 is doable. And maybe just maybe we will keep going. You can explore the book further by clicking the link below.
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