Devotional | Moment for Purity

Psalms 100:4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, give thanks to Him and bless His name.

Give thanks to Him and bless His name. This is the sixth command in this short, positive Psalms. O, to be truly grateful from the heart! God, give me such a heart.

Grateful people have recognized their dependence upon others.
Grateful people tend not to be presumptuous.
Grateful people have their pride and arrogance in check.
Grateful people tend to be pleasant to be around.
Grateful people recognize that others have given of their time, talents or resources to meet their need.
Grateful people are ‘others centered’, taking time to acknowledge the generosity of others.

I am mindful of a society’s ingratitude toward the Creator. From Romans 1, “…Because they did not see fit to acknowledge God or GIVE THANKS to Him…They became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened… He gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts to impurity…”

Ingratitude: the unwillingness to say “THANK YOU”, the refusal to acknowledge the generosity of God, the grotesque “Golem-like” attitude of “MINE”, all are UGLY in God’s sight. He delights in our gratitude and notes it publicly. When the healed leper returns, Jesus publicly acknowledges him.

Give thanks to Him. Bless His name. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Enter His courts with praise. Come into His presence with singing… God is a great, generous God who gives and gives and gives to us again and again. He is the source of life, breath and ALL good things. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. Take some time today and purpose in your heart to say THANK YOU to those around you. Make a goal of saying “THANK YOU” at least 10 times today to those around you. See what verbal gratitude does to your soul.

Psalms 100:4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, give thanks to Him and bless His name.

This verse has altered the way that I pray. This is a command verse describing how to approach prayer. The FIRST thing that we are to do in our times of prayer is to have a time of thanksgiving and praise. It can be a simple statement of acknowledging God. It can be a simple, “Thank You” for being there and for being available. It can be a verbal acknowledgement of His mercy, or grace, or kindness, or love, or a hundred other wonderful character traits of the Father.

Starting out prayer time in this way recalibrates my attitude towards God. It also slows me down from a ‘me-centric’ prayer life. Instead of coming to God with my needs, wants and desires, it forces me to think on God. It puts my petitions, intercessions and supplications in their proper setting.

Psa. 92 says, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Thy name O Most High, to declare thy steadfast love in the morning and Thy faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and harp, to the melody of the lyre…” Not only does this verse provide proper instruction on ‘how to approach the King of Kings and Lord of Lords’, but it is simply GOOD for us to do so.

When you add Psa. 100:2 to the mix, “Come into his presence with singing…”, the entry point of praying to the Father is to give thanks, praise AND to sing. I am trying to do this in my private devotions. It is definitely a major transformation of my Quiet Time. It also involves MORE than just my head or the saying of silent prayers. My devotional and prayer life is becoming more vibrant, involving my heart, my mind, my voice and my soul.

This is ultimately what God wants from all of us all the time. Jesus commanded us to “love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength…” Psalms 100 gives us a number of practical clues and instruction on worshiping this way. “Come into His presence with singing…Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise….”

Psalms 146: 9 … but the way of the wicked He brings to ruin…

There is a great comfort in this verse. When I see ‘wicked people’ prosper, when I see the ‘perverse’ receive glory from the world, when I see reprobates (pornographers) accumulate wealth, this verse tells me their ultimate end. God is not mocked and is no respecter of persons.

I pray for their salvation. I don’t want them to be forever separated from God. Evangelism is their only hope, that they would hear the Gospel, repent of their sins, turn from their wickedness that they may be saved. Without their repentance, without Jesus, their ‘lostness’ is certain. Their ‘ruin’ is guaranteed.

Prov 3:25 Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes;

Prov 12:12 The strong tower of the wicked comes to ruin…

Prov 21:12 The righteous observes the house of the wicked; the wicked are cast down to ruin.

Prov 2: 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and men of integrity will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Prov 3:33 The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.

Prov 4:19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

Prov 6:12-15 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

2 Thes 1:8,9 inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

Psalms 146: 9 … The Lord watches over the sojourner…

From God’s perspective, we are all aliens or sojourners. Our permanent dwelling place is heaven, where Jesus is now building a room/mansion/place for us to dwell forever with Him.

On this basis, we are urged in 1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” It is the same basis for the Psalmist praying in Psalms 119:19 “I am a sojourner on earth, hide not Thy commandments from me!”

From the very beginning of Israel, when the Jews made their exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land, God gave specific instructions regarding the treatment of aliens, exiles or ‘non-Jews’. In Deut 23:7,8 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land.”

He is reminding the Jews: “You lived in Egypt once, for many, many generations. You ‘sojourned’ there. Now, that you have your ‘own’ land, you are to treat any ‘non-Jews’ with dignity and respect. You are not to ‘abhor’ them, for ‘he is your brother’.” God even grants ‘citizenship’ to the offspring of the aliens in Deut 23:8, “The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.”

In the bigger scope, God goes even further. You think that the land is yours, but it is not. The land is Mine. Lev 25:23 ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” Also, in Psalms 24:2, “The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof…” We are to never lose our ‘sojourner’ mentality. We belong to a different land, a different kingdom, a heavenly, permanent, eternal kingdom.

I think about this when Obama says that he will not deport 800,000 ‘aliens’, ‘sojourners’ and offspring of ‘aliens’ who have lived in this land for 15-20 years. I think about this when the UN claims ‘human rights violations’ against America when the ‘white’ sojourners infiltrated from Europe and took over the land from ‘native’ Americans. I think about this when one Indian tribe! would massacre another tribe to take over their land. Where does it stop? Who really ‘owns’ the land? Nobody. God owns the land. We are all ‘sojourners’. We just don’t all recognize it.

Psalms 100:4,5 Bless His name, for the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever, His faithfulness to all generations

Three BIG character traits or attributes of God are mentioned in the last verse of this great little Psalm. The first is: GOD is good. The second is: His steadfast love endures forever. The third is: His faithfulness endures throughout all generations.

These truths form the foundation of a belief structure that enables us to endure the ‘winds and the rains’ that beat upon the houses of our lives’. We MUST know, understand and come to a firm conviction that these three ‘truths’ are true, and that they are ‘true for us’.

If we don’t believe that God is good and has our ‘best interests’ at heart, then it will be hard to believe and accept that He loves us. The ‘goodness of God’ is bedrock and foundational to all of life. Bad things WILL happen to us. Evil happens in the world. Plans will NOT go according to our best intentions. People will fail us. Despite our best intentions, we will fail and sin. Satan will NOT leave us unmolested. Yet, in spite of whatever happens in life, if we wrap ourselves with this great truth, we can maintain HOPE. We can cling to God and continue to cleave to Him in the midst of the hardest of times.

Closely related to this is that God’s steadfast love never ends. We MUST know, understand, accept and live on this great truth: GOD LOVES ME. God will never stop loving me. His love for me is not based on my performance. It is not based on the consistency of my ‘walk with Him’. It is based on the immutable nature of God Himself. I must accept this by faith and not live on ‘feelings’.

The last great truth in this verse is that God is FAITHFUL. His faithfulness endures. His faithfulness is not contingent upon my faithfulness. Rom. 3 says, “What if some were unfaithful, does my faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means…” This is such an incredible truth. Add this to God’s goodness and God’s love, this triad of truth can and will sustain us through all the storms of life. They form the basis of our joy and our hope.

1 Cor 9:24:27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it…

As Char and I watched the Olympic games being held in London, I couldn’t help but wonder at the dedication of the winning athletes. Four years ago, Ryan Lochte was in the ‘shadows’ of the great swimmer Michael Phelps. After seeing Phelps win 8 gold medals, Lochte dedicated himself to becoming stronger and in better condition to compete against and to beat Phelps.

In one of the feature stories, Lochte’s training regimen was documented. It showed him doing a number of unconventional exercises with heavy objects. One such exercise showed him lifting and turning over and over again a 650-pound rubber tire. It was strenuous and hard to do, but Lochte had mastered it. I was reminded of today’s verse …”So run that you may obtain it….”

I meet each week with a number of men for accountability and discipleship. One of the re-occurring battles or issues that I and a number of men face is ‘how to live a pure life in the midst of an ever increasing XXX-rated culture’. Pornography is accessible, always only a click or two away. Unsolicited emails, billboard advertisements, radio music, and TV commercials ALL hearken to our flesh. It is EASY to give the members of our bodies: our eyes, ears and thoughts to the lie that it is OK to look as long as you don’t touch. Most guys I know fight and fight, losing the battle sometimes, then getting back up and fighting so more.

One brother recently asked me, “Are you fighting to fight? Or, are you fighting to win?” This is an interesting question and an important one. If you are fighting to fight, then the ‘battle’ continues to be on going, almost even ‘noble’ to say, “I am in the fight.” If you are fighting to win, then there is a sense of absolutism about the fight. It is for ‘keeps’. It is more solemn, more intense and more deadly. You will do ‘whatever it takes’ to fight AND win. Col. 3 says: “Put to death what is earthly within you, all passion, evil desire, lust…” We are called to ‘fight to win’. Rom. 6 says, “You also MUST consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Lochte won what is considered the most grueling swimming race of all, the 400M Individual Medley, beating Phelps by several seconds. His hard work was vindicated. He ‘fought’ and trained to win, and walked away with the gold medal.

Psalms 146:1,2 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O My soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praises to my God while I have being…

I love these two verses. Four times the word Praise is used. The first time is a genuine expression of simple worship of God
The second time, he is calling on all the parts of his body, both seen and unseen to unite together to Praise the Lord. He is calling on his brain and his thoughts; he is calling on his flesh and body; he is calling on his heart and his emotions; he is calling on his will and his ambitions; he is calling on strengths, gifts and talents to unite together as one to Praise the Lord. He does NOT want to be half hearted or only partially involved. He wants it to be in whole-hearted praise.
Next, he also does not want to be ‘on and off’ again in his praise. He wants his praise to be continuous, ‘as long as I live’.
Lastly, I get the impression that until his dying breath, he will praise the Lord. “I will sing praises to my God WHILE I HAVE BEING….” Not only will he be praising the Lord, but he will do it with song. “I will SING PRAISES…”
Throughout the day, at various times, temptations will come along with various accusations from the evil one. If I don’t control either the temptations or the accusations, I will inevitably fall into sin. One way to overcome these attacks is through PRAISE. Psa. 22:3 says, “…The Lord inhabits the praises of His people…” When I intentionally start singing a praise song to God, my whole being can quickly come under submission to a Spirit-led song of praise. Satan hates this and will flee. God will envelop our minds and thoughts and we can quickly get re-calibrated back to spiritual things. It ‘gets our heads back into the game’; it snaps us out of the Satanic stupor that leads to sin and broken relationship with God.
If you haven’t memorized a verse in a while, this would be a good one to work on. Say it out loud 5-8 times. Within 3 minutes you will have it memorized.

Psalms 100:4,5 Bless His name, for the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever

Love and marriage, horse and carriage, soup and sandwich, Thelma and Louise, all are ‘famous’ word pairings. When it comes to speaking of the word “LOVE” in scriptures, there is another word closely associated it, even ‘paired’ with it. It is the word STEADFAST. Over 200 times in Scriptures the phrase STEADFAST LOVE is used. The constant repetition of this phrase is intentional for our sake.

We are so frail and so forgetful, that the Evil One constantly challenges us with his deceptions that God doesn’t love us anymore; or that we can lose His love; or that God suddenly stops loving us because of our sinful actions; or that when something ‘bad’ happens to us or a loved one, that it is proof that He doesn’t love us anymore. BALDERDASH! Over 200 times God is trying to tattoo this great truth onto our souls and under our eyelids, “MY LOVE IS A STEADFAST LOVE”. My love for you is not whimsical. It is not fleeting. It is not fickle. My love for you is a steadfast, immoveable love. My love for you is incomprehensible. My love for you is a heavenly love, not of this world kind of love. It is based on my very essence, “For God IS LOVE”

We are to bless the Lord and to give thanks to Him because He is good AND because His STEADFAST LOVE endures forever. This is a statement that repeats itself. The nature of divine steadfastness is eternal. When the Scripture repeats the same thought in the same sentence, it is a reinforcement of truth. HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER.

I worry and wonder sometimes after a choice to sin whether God could still love me. I ask, “Can I still come back to You?” “Is there forgiveness with You?” “Can You overlook my sin (again)?”

In Psalms 52, the Psalmist says, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I TRUST IN THY STEADFAST LOVE forever.” This is what made David great in God’s eyes. He really understood this truth about God. Even after severely ‘blowing it’ with Bathsheba, he prayed, “Have mercy on me O God, according to Thy STEADFAST LOVE, have mercy on me…” David knew that divine forgiveness and mercy were available to him because of God’s STEADFAST, non-fickle, LOVE. He trusted in it. WE too are challenged to have this same kind of trust in God’s STEADFAST LOVE.

Come Into His Presence with Singing Psa 100:2

Psalms 100:2 Come into His presence with singing…

This is another ‘challenge’ verse for me. When is am ‘in the Spirit’, truly walking with the Lord with my mind ‘set on the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God’, this command is not so hard. Over the past year though, it seems that the cares of this world, general anxiety over the state of the world, the decline of our country, the obvious bias of all major media outlets, the increasing lawlessness in our society, etc., leads me to not want to sing.

For me, singing involves more of my being than simply praying. When I sing, my voice gets involved. Most of the time, I have to think about the lyrics and then ultimately, my heart gets involved. This is precisely what the Father wants. He wants all my HEART, soul, mind and strength.

Matt Redman has a new song out called ‘10,000 Reasons’. It’s an excellent song with an easy flowing melody. Yesterday, I played it over and again 10-15 times, intentionally trying to memorize the words to the song. This song and others like it, give me words to sing when I am in the presence of God. Check it out:

Singing puts me in a spiritually proper frame of mind. I envision myself actually ‘performing’ for the Father. The question is ‘what type of song am I singing?’ Is it a song of lament? Is it a whining song of complaint? Is it a joyful and happy song? Is it a song of gratitude and thanksgiving? Is it a song of praise? David sang all kings of songs to the Father. He poured out his heart to Him and God delighted in them.

Father, help me to sing to You. Help me to pour out my heart to you.

Psalms 100:3 …” It is He that made us and we are His, we are His people and the sheep of His pasture…”

Notice the word “His” in this verse. Because God made us, He owns us by divine ‘right’. When you ‘create’ something, you ‘own’ it. We are His people. We are the sheep of His pasture. In the secular world, we have both national and international ‘copyright’ laws to protect the ownership rights of creative works.

Not only does God ‘own’ us by virtue of creation; He also ‘owns’ us because He bought us. We were ‘sold’ into slavery due to sin. When Adam sinned, and subsequently, we all sinned, Satan became our Father. We transferred our rightful place originally given to us by the Creator, and gave it away to Satan. Just like Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of porridge, Adam sold our birthright for a bite from the forbidden fruit.

The redemption price was pure and sinless blood that man was unable and unwillingly to pay. When Jesus, the sinless Son of Man, came, lived without sin, then willingly sacrificed His life for our sin, the purchase price for our souls was paid. We were ‘redeemed’. God bought us back. Now, we are twice owned. Ownership was first by creation and then secondly, by the blood of Jesus. 1 Cor. 6:18-20 says, “Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you… Isa 44:22

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” Gal. 3:13

Praise God that He is our Redeemer. Praise God that we are NOW His possession.

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