The Presidential Prayer Team

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! – Psalm 100:4

Everyone likes to hear some words of praise. How encouraging it is when someone acknowledges a positive trait or a job well done! Encouragement affirms you are on the right track, at least in one area, and counters feelings of inferiority or insecurity. Many families and church groups have the tradition of naming something they are thankful for, with family and friends at the top of the list. Psalm 100 goes deeper than that. The focus is on God Himself. It exhorts people to praise Him and bless His name.

When a believer praises and worships the Lord, it is just as much for their own benefit as for God’s. The Heavenly Father is love and desires to give love to and receive it from His children. Praise and worship remind people of who He is and what He has done. It reassures a believer that their frail position and vulnerability can be handed over to an all-powerful, all-loving, all-forgiving God. When you participate in praise and thanksgiving, you strengthen your faith and your ability to overcome the challenges of life.

So this November, focus not only on what God has done for you but who He is. Marvel over the fact that He loves you and wants to be loved by you. Intercede for the United States, that the people, as a whole, will yield themselves to God in Jesus Christ with praise, worship, and thanksgiving.

Today’s Verse: Psalm 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Psalm 92

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
    to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
²to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
    and your faithfulness by night,
³to the music of the lute and the harp,
    to the melody of the lyre.
⁴For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
    at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

⁵How great are your works, O Lord!
    Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶The stupid man cannot know;
    the fool cannot understand this:
⁷that though the wicked sprout like grass
    and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;
⁸    but you, O Lord, are on high forever.
⁹For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
    for behold, your enemies shall perish;
    all evildoers shall be scattered.

¹⁰But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
    you have poured over me fresh oil.
¹¹My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
    my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

¹²The righteous flourish like the palm tree
    and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³They are planted in the house of the Lord;
    they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴They still bear fruit in old age;
    they are ever full of sap and green,
¹⁵to declare that the Lord is upright;
    he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.