The Key to the Gates
Do you need a “key” to enter into God’s presence?
Verse of the Day
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Today’s Devotional
Imagine you are standing in front of an amazing old castle. It looks really grand, and it also looks really warm and inviting. Between you and the castle is a gate. And that gate is locked.
What do you do?
Some of us would give up and leave because we know we don’t have the key. Others would look around and see if they can find a key hidden somewhere. Or some people might convince themselves that they didn’t want to go to the castle anyway, and then they move along. Lastly, some people might be so busy on their journey that they never even noticed the castle in the first place.
What if gratitude is the key?
I’m not saying that God keeps Himself behind a locked gate and that we have to somehow figure out a magic combination of actions to be let in. But what if we take the words of today’s first verse as an invitation into God’s presence that supernaturally happens when we choose to be grateful?
When we choose to be grateful, we enter through the gates into God’s presence. It’s not magic, it’s an intentional choice we get to make.
There’s a line to a popular Christian song that says “all nature and science follow the sound of your voice.” This line of lyrics keeps coming to my mind as I’ve been listening to podcasts of secular researchers who are scientifically proving the power of gratitude. The data is pretty overwhelming.
To support today’s verse, I learned about one research study that proved that practicing the habit of “counting your blessings” unlocked a part of the brain that gives the ability to think long term. They proved, in repeated studies with different stimuli, that practicing gratitude more than doubled a person’s ability to deny themselves an immediate reward in favor of a far greater reward that would happen at an unknown time in the future. And keep in mind, the gratitude lists these participants made were not at all related to the current reward or the future reward. This is scientific research that shows that practicing gratitude helps you to make better decisions. Long-term thinking is surely something that God would invite us to use, and practicing gratitude is a key to unlocking that part of our brain.
Today’s Gratitude Challenge 1: Music. Are you grateful for music? Psalms 101:1 says, ‘I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.’ Think of a song that moves you and choose to write down your gratitude about that song. There is power in music. Humans who compose music have a special gift. We need to be grateful for that. Music has the power to invoke an emotional response. That’s amazing. For me, music has the power to change my mood. And I am so grateful for that. If I need to do a bunch of chores that I’m not excited about, I put on really peppy, upbeat music. And it changes my attitude. One of my favorite songs is called Gratitude (click to listen). How are you grateful for music?
Today’s Gratitude Challenge 2: Are you grateful for your sense of hearing? With your ears you can hear music, sermons, the voices of people you love, the gentle rain falling. And hearing gives us faith: ‘So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.’ (Romans 10:17) How and why are you grateful for your ability to hear? Be specific.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Would you like to be in God’s presence today? If so, is choosing to be grateful a price you are willing to “pay” for that? If yes, start writing your gratitude list.
How does it make you feel that science supports the power of being grateful?
Have you ever felt far away from God? Does choosing gratitude make you feel any closer to Him?
What song are you grateful for and why?
What musician or composer are you grateful for and why?
What power does music have (or not) in your life?
How and why are your grateful for your ability to hear?