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….”