What Did You Say?

When Piper and I went to the local ATT store to purchase a new cell phone a few months ago in our new hometown of Fuquay-Varina, a large and growing metropolitan area with a burgeoning population of about 19,000 friendly folks (I’m kidding about the metropolitan area but the town is definitely growing with its relatively close proximity to Raleigh and the Research Triangle – NC’s Silicon Valley) the sales guy asked for my Apple password so he could transfer the old phone’s account information into our new 7 plus.  Well… you guessed it, as soon as he asked, my mind went blank and I immediately thought about the little black book I had back home where I keep track of all the various passwords I use.

Am I the only one that this ever happens to?  With so many different online accounts and each of them seemingly asking for stronger and more complicated passwords, I finally deduced that the little black book was the best way for me to have a quick way to recall them!  The only ones that I tend to memorize are the ones that I use all the time.  The downside is that I don’t carry the little book around with me 24/7.   And since I don’t trust the supposedly secure online password saving programs, I will occasionally run into a problem like at the ATT store.  But to be honest, this very seldom happens because 95% of the time I am online is at home where I have easy access to my password book.

If you recall our blog post from last Monday, I mentioned The Message Bible’s modern paraphrase of Psalm 100:4 where it talks about the use of a particular password.  If you met the Psalmist today he would say to you: “Enter with the password: ‘Thank you!’ Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him.”  The only difficulty with the modern twist on this favorite Psalm is that it doesn’t really ever tell you where or what you are entering into!  In my opinion, the answer to those two questions is kind of the key to the whole Psalm.

So for us to find that important information, we have to fall back onto a more traditional translation.  My old standby, The King James Version, explains that we are to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”   Ahhh… now that makes a little more sense!  But I must also must confess that I do like the picture that the Message Bible implants in the reader concerning the idea of THANKSGIVING as being the PASSWORD to get through the GATES and into the presence of Papa God.  As it turns out, THANKSGIVING is one of those few PASSWORDS that I use often enough to remember without the use of my little black book!  What about you? 

Once you get through the gates the next keyword to remember and activate is PRAISE.  The physical and verbal action of PRAISING God is what brings us into God’s courts, or maybe a bit easier to understand… into His presence.  While reading this verse I was captivated by the realization that the Psalmist specifically talks about ‘courts’ in the plural sense.  In his well-known book, The Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon says about the ‘courts’ spoken of in this verse as: “Whatever court of the Lord you may enter, let your admission be the subject of praise - thanks be to God, the innermost court is now open to believers, and we enter into that which is within the veil…”

As I got deeper into my personal study of these GATES and COURTS I suddenly had the idea that THANKSGIVING will get you in the door and PRAISE will bring you into the very presence of Papa God.  Then it seemed to make sense to me… and I have some personal experience to back this up… that the more we PRAISE Him, the deeper we enter into His presence!  Then I had another revelation in that continued PRAISE gets us and then keeps us in His presence.

So… am I saying that we need to be physically and verbally PRASING the Lord 24/7?  Well, as nice as that could be, I do not think that it very practical… nor do I feel that this is what the Lord would require of us.  But what I do think He may be desiring for us is to stay in a continual ATTITUDE OF PRAISE and THANKSGIVING! 

That kind of ATTITUDE comes from regular fellowship with Him through His Word and prayer.  A lifestyle that puts Him first will turn you into an individual who is alert and aware of Him in all that you do… and it leads to that ATTITUDE OF PRAISE and THANKSGIVING!  My own attempts at this have been sorely tested over these last ten years, and there have been more than just a few occasions where I have fallen short of an ATTITUDE OF PRAISE and THANKSGIVNG. 

But at times like these, I am also very thankful for the last verse in Psalm 100 where it says that “The LORD is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness endures throughout every generation.” (God’s Word ©)  And all I can say about this truth is THANKS to God and PRAISE His holy name for this reassures me that when I hit a slippery slope I can rely on the FACTS that He is GOOD, that His mercy is ENDURES FOREVER and that His faithfulness ENDURES THROUGHOUT EVERY GENERATION!

Whew!  Pretty cool wouldn’t you say?

This is getting a little long, so let me wrap up this post by encouraging you to give THANKSGIVING and PRAISE a try in your life!  I can’t tell you of all the times something would happen out on the manufacturing floor where I supervised at Hewlett Packard when my first verbal response would be either “Thank you Jesus” or “Praise the Lord” and inevitably someone who heard me would say: “What did you say?” 

That seemingly weird response always worked in giving me a peaceful solution to whatever difficulty I faced at that moment… and opened many doors of Christian conversation and counseling!  So, like I said… go ahead and be weird and give THANKSGIVNG and PRAISE a try!  You never know… after a while you might start seeing some things change in your life… as well as in some of those around you!

Have a great rest of the week, and as you do, keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting to say when life’s circumstances get a little testy?”