Integrity- People of God

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Our gladness and joyful songs are acts of worship to the Lord. We should come before Him with joyful singing, gladness and a thankful heart. To be thankful is an expression of gratitude or relief; to be glad that something has happened or not happened; glad that something or someone exists. Regardless of where life takes us or what chaos may arise we always have a choice to focus on God and His goodness or thecurrent circumstances.

We are the keepers and stewards of our own hearts. We determine the motive behind our heart and what we choose to believe is the reason or the why of our lives. We each are the guardians of our own heart. We are responsible for our own life choices and the condition of our hearts as an act of our will or as the result of our decisions. This world system will try to influence our lives and try to impact the condition of heart but the choice is ours to make. We can choose to have a thankful heart or we can choose to allow our life experiences to shape our lives and our state of mind. We must take a hard look at the heart that we are bringing before God. 

When we choose to be fearful we are choosing to focus on our lack. This is like us discounting all of who God is and all He has ever done and saying we do not believe He is able to keep us during these difficult times. The things we fear become greater in our eyes than God.  Fear is a natural human response to chaos but God has called believers to a supernatural response of faith in Him.  Believers are to have faith in God and that He is able and willing to keep us in every situation because He loves us. This is a display of faith and is a testimony to the world of who God is. 

It is when we rehearse the goodness and blessing of God in our hearts and minds that we can run toward our challenges, as David ran towardthe giant. Ingratitude forgets God’s goodness and focuses on the problems but thankfulness focuses on the Sovereignty of God.

A  Psalm for giving grateful praise.

Psalm 100  Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.   Worship the Lordwith gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lordis God. It is he who made us, and we are his  we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations   NIV

We must understand that we were not created for ourselves or for our own selfish concerns but this life is a gift from God created for His purpose. We are to be thankful no matter the situation we find ourselvesbecause we know God is sovereign. Our created purpose is to show God’s love while we are living even in the mist of chaos and pain. We are called be the love of God in Christ. We should not let life experiences shape us into a spirit of thanklessness, ingratitude and ungratefulness. It is when we live our lives focused on God and His goodness that the ingratitude we experience will dissipate.  Our view of God will affect how view our lives, our joy and our ability to be thankful during life challenges.  

We can choose to be thankful when we have an understanding of ourpurpose and knowing that it was God’s love for us that sent Jesus to bring us back into His family. It was the love of God that would not leave us condemned. It was God’s love that redeemed us back to our original purpose of being the love of God in the earth. We can shout with joy when we understand we too are God’s sons being used to bring others into His Kingdom.    

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations   NIV