Psalm 100 says,
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 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. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
I was thinking about the part that says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” I think of this as setting your perspective straight. Enter with thanksgiving not with your hair on fire. Now David talks about God being our refuge and strong tower, which is a place you go to find safety in trouble. But I think of this as a perspective shift.
Sometimes I don’t feel overwhelmingly thankful, and I long to hear God’s voice to be strengthened in the fibers of my being. I’m very aware of how I think and how I feel. My awareness creates the option to choose my approach. I think about crying and freaking out but that’s not the only approach God responds to. Sometimes one of my kids will get hurt and they will run around screaming in panic (as I think about this, I’m laughing). This is why rule number one in my house is nobody panic. Your ability to not panic is a sign of maturity. When my emotional state is funky that is not a reflection of God’s mental and emotional state. If I feel panicked, that doesn’t mean God is panicked. You could think that this is a perfect time to “confess your need” for God. But I live from a different perspective.
When Peter started to sink after he began to walk on the water Jesus said, “Why would you doubt?”. He didn’t say, “confess that you need me”. That wouldn’t make sense especially since Jesus was right there. When the disciples woke Jesus up in a panic when they were on the boat in the middle of the storm Jesus said, “why are you so afraid? Do so still have no faith?”
So when I consider the approach of panic and worry I am always reminded of these passages which say, “The way of the kingdom is faith, trust and belief”. So if my emotional state is funky but God’s isn’t, then I want to adjust my perspective to God’s and see things from reality, not my imagination. This is where you enter the gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. You consider, remember and think on the abundance of life and it’s this shift of focus that changes your perspective and it’s this perspective that changes your approach.