Church Anemia - Entering With Thanksgiving And Praise

How we enter time with God, including corporate time with God, will greatly impact the potency and outcome of that time.

Have you ever walked away from a church service (or your dedicated personal time with God) and felt like the purpose of that time was not at all achieved?

Worse yet, is that your normal?

For many churches, this is in fact their normal – congregants leaving the church service lacking and anemic in their faith, week after week.

Psalm 100:4 says, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

But, do we actually do these commands?

One old time preacher believed so deeply that this was a command to be followed, that under the leading of Holy Spirit, he once demanded that an entire audience exit the main auditorium… only to immediately turn back around and enter the auditorium again – but this time, as the verse expressly commands. So, they walked in with hands lifted, giving God thanks and praising Him. Interesting, right! I will say, it sure would quickly adjust the focus of that service. Many of us come into services wanting to connect with people, or not feel embarrassed, and not really thinking about Jesus at all. In fact, for many people, it takes a healthy time singing worship songs to the Lord to wash off the week (or just that morning) and even begin to focus on the Lord.

But what if this is more than a command?

In the business world, just about every function or action has a written out standard operating procedure (SOP) attached to it. The SOP empowers any employee to know exactly what to do to perform at the highest level for any given task. This is how businesses replicate processes across multiple employees, multiple locations, multiple states, and even multiple countries; to best achieve the purpose and intended outcomes of the work being accomplished. Inversely though, an employee not following a clearly written SOP, is often, if not always, an assured waste of time and money, and the purpose of the work that the employee is to do, may not at all be achieved.

The Bible is the ultimate SOP for life, and I think that Psalms 100:4 may be an SOP for how to enter into dedicated time with Jesus. What would happen in your church, your ministry, and in you, if you obeyed this simple verse?

“Ioannis, I think you are taking one verse way out of proportion here.”

Ok. But take a look at the whole chapter. It is only 5 verses. Three of the 5 verses are written totally in command language and the 4th verse is partially written in command language. Almost the entire chapter is a list of commands on how to serve and connect with God. So, I don’t think that I am taking verse 4 at all out of proportion.

“Ioannis, the Psalms are poetic Bible language and are not to be taken so literally.”

Jesus sure took the Psalms literally. He quoted them often. And He also took very seriously the portions that he confirmed were actually prophecies about Him. That does not sound like “less than” poetry to me. If part of Psalms were Messianic prophecies, then why aren’t part of Psalms also binding and true commands?

How about this? How about you simply try the Biblical approach every time you come before the Lord, including corporately. What could it hurt? Remember when I made this statement, “In fact, for many people, it takes a healthy time singing worship songs to the Lord to wash off the week (or just that morning), and even begin to focus on the Lord.” What would your services be like if everyone in the room truly came in already fully focused on Jesus, speaking His praises, and thankful for Him and every Blessing that He has given?

People in the audience of that old time preacher that I mentioned above, later testified that the presence of God came into the place as a result of them coming in the “proper” way.