THE GATEWAY INTO HIS PRESENCE

Discovering the Mystery of Thanksgiving

For the past two weeks, the Holy Spirit has been convicting me about Psalm 100. It has been a strange and deeply personal experience because I have found myself reading this chapter over and over again without fully understanding why. Every time I picked up my Bible intending to read another chapter, somehow I would stop at Psalm 100. I began asking myself, “Why can’t I read anything else? Why do I keep coming back to this particular chapter? What is it that I am supposed to see?” I knew there was something in Psalm 100 that I needed to discover, but at that moment I could not understand what it was.

Then, last Monday, while I was on my way to Nairobi, I stopped somewhere in Arusha, and I experienced a very strong conviction from the Holy Spirit concerning thanksgiving. I began to realize that, most of the time, my thanksgiving to God had a reason attached to it. I would thank Him because He had answered a prayer, opened a door, provided something, done something for me, or brought me through a particular situation. Even when I gave thanksgiving offerings, there was often something behind the thanksgiving. I would have a reason, a testimony, an answered prayer, or something I could point to and say, “This is why I am thanking You.”

Then I felt the Holy Spirit asking me a question that deeply convicted me: “Have you ever thanked Me without a reason? Do you need a reason to thank Me? Can you just thank Me for Me? Can you thank Me without attaching your thanksgiving to something I have done for you?”

That question changed something in me. I began to repent because I realized that I had unconsciously made thanksgiving about what God does rather than who God is. I began to pour out my heart before Him, not asking Him for anything, not reminding Him of anything I needed, and not thanking Him because I had just received something. I simply began to thank Him. I wanted to thank Him for Himself.

After that experience, I went back again to Psalm 100. Then, on September 6th, around midnight, while meditating on everything that had been happening, I began searching for Scriptures that could help me understand this conviction. I was literally searching the internet for Scriptures that speak about thanking God without having a specific reason. Then I came across Psalm 100:4, which says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.” Another translation expresses it as entering His presence with thanksgiving and praise.

Suddenly, I became emotional because I remembered the past two weeks. I remembered how many times I had opened my Bible intending to read something else, only to find myself returning to Psalm 100. I had been asking myself why I could not move beyond that chapter, and suddenly I realized that perhaps the Holy Spirit had been leading me there all along because there was something He wanted to teach me about thanksgiving. Just that same day, I had been sharing with my friend Aidan that I did not understand why I kept reading Psalm 100, but I was convinced that there was something in it that I had not yet discovered. Now I began to see it.

It took two weeks for the Holy Spirit to teach me something that I believe is a deeper dimension of thanksgiving.

I began to understand that there are different dimensions of thanksgiving. There is thanksgiving because of what God has done, and there is thanksgiving because of who God is. The first one is familiar to most of us. God answers a prayer, and we thank Him. God provides, and we thank Him. God heals, and we thank Him. God opens a door, and we thank Him. God gives us a breakthrough, and we thank Him. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this kind of thanksgiving. In fact, it is biblical.

Even Jesus demonstrated this. In John 11:41, when Jesus was standing before the tomb of Lazarus, He prayed, “Father, I thank You because You have heard Me.” Jesus thanked the Father because He knew that the Father had heard Him. Likewise, in John 6:11, when Jesus took the bread, He gave thanks and then distributed it to the people. He thanked God for what was in His hands before it was multiplied. These passages show us that it is biblical to thank God because of what He has done, what He has provided, or what we know He is doing.

But I believe there is another dimension that goes deeper. It is the dimension of thanking God simply because of who He is.

There is a place where I do not come before God because I need something from Him. I do not come because I have just received a blessing. I do not come because I have an answered prayer or a testimony. I simply come because He is God. I thank Him because He is good. I thank Him because He is faithful. I thank Him because He is holy. I thank Him because He is merciful. I thank Him because He is loving. I thank Him because He has given me Himself. I thank Him because He is worthy.

At this level, thanksgiving is no longer centered around me; it becomes centered around Him.

This is what convicted me so deeply. Sometimes, without realizing it, even our thanksgiving can remain centered around ourselves. “God, thank You because You gave me this.” “God, thank You because You opened this door.” “God, thank You because You answered this prayer.” Again, there is nothing wrong with saying these things. They are biblical expressions of gratitude. But what if there is a deeper place where I can come before God and say, “Father, I do not have a request today. I do not have a testimony to present. I do not need to remind You of anything You have done. I simply came to thank You because You are You”?

What if I can thank Him even when I cannot see what He is doing? What if I can thank Him before I see the answer? What if I can thank Him when nothing around me appears to have changed? What if my thanksgiving does not depend on my circumstances but on the character of God?

That is the dimension I believe the Holy Spirit has been teaching me.

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.” The more I meditated on this verse, the more I understood that thanksgiving is not merely something we offer after God has done something for us. Thanksgiving is also a posture of the heart with which we approach God. It turns our attention away from ourselves and toward Him. It shifts our focus from what is in His hands to who He is.

I do not want to reduce this revelation into a formula where I think, “If I thank God enough, He will open a door for me.” That would still make thanksgiving about me. It would turn worship into a transaction. I do not want to thank God because I am trying to make Him do something for me. I want to reach the place where I can come before Him without an agenda.

No request. No negotiation. No transaction. No expectation of receiving something in return.

Just worship.

Just gratitude.

Just Him.

There is something beautiful about being able to stand before God and say, “Father, I have come to thank You, not because I need anything from You, not because I am waiting for a blessing, and not because You have just done something for me. I have come because You are worthy.”

He has already done enough. He is still doing things that I see, and He is doing things that I do not see. There are things He has done that I have forgotten, things He is doing that I do not yet understand, and things He is protecting me from that I may never know about. But beyond all of these things, He Himself is enough.

There is no greater gift than His presence.

This is why I believe thanksgiving has a deeper dimension. When I thank God only because of what He has done, my attention can easily remain on the blessing. But when I thank Him because of who He is, the blessing becomes secondary and God Himself becomes the center. I can appreciate what is in His hands without becoming more attached to His hands than to His heart.

I can thank Him for the answer without loving the answer more than the One who answered. I can thank Him for the miracle without allowing the miracle to become greater than the Miracle Worker. I can thank Him for the provision without making the provision more important than the Provider.

I want Him.

Just Him.

I believe this is also a dimension of spiritual maturity. There comes a point where our relationship with God cannot continue to be built only around what He does for us. We must come to know Him for who He is. We must reach a place where our worship is not dependent upon visible results. We must be able to say, “Even if I cannot see anything happening, You are still worthy. Even if I am waiting, You are still good. Even if I do not understand, You are still faithful.”

This does not mean there is nothing to thank Him for. There is always something to thank Him for. Rather, it means that I no longer need to wait for a new blessing before I recognize His goodness.

I can look at God Himself and say, “You are enough.”

And perhaps this is one of the deepest dimensions of thanksgiving: when I no longer need to attach my thanksgiving to a benefit because God Himself has become the reason for my thanksgiving.

When I discovered this, something changed in my prayer life. I started thanking Him throughout the day without necessarily having a specific reason in mind. Sometimes I would simply say, “Father, thank You.” And if my mind asked, “Thank You for what?” my heart would answer, “For You.”

Thank You for being God.

Thank You for being good.

Thank You for being faithful.

Thank You for loving me.

Thank You for Your presence.

Thank You for who You are.

I am learning that there are things God does that I see and things He does that I do not see. There are things He is doing right now that I may never know about. Yet my thanksgiving does not have to wait for revelation. I can thank Him because He is worthy even when I do not understand what He is doing.

So I want to challenge myself, and I want to challenge everyone reading this: take time to go before God without an agenda. Do not ask Him for anything. Do not remind Him of what you need. Do not present Him with a list. Simply sit before Him and thank Him.

And if the question comes, “For what?”

Tell Him:

“For You.”

“Thank You for being God.”

“Thank You for being faithful.”

“Thank You for being good.”

“Thank You for loving me.”

“Thank You for keeping me.”

“Thank You for Your presence.”

“Thank You for who You are.”

Because He has done enough, and He is still doing more than we know.

It is biblical to thank God because of what He has done. Jesus Himself did it. But I believe our desire should go deeper than the blessing, deeper than the answer, deeper than the miracle, deeper than the provision. We should desire to know Him more deeply, to see Him more clearly, to love Him more completely, and to worship Him without an agenda.

We can thank Him for something, but there is another dimension where we simply thank Him for Himself.

He should be the center of our thanksgiving.

He should be the reason.

He should be the thing itself.

And when there is nothing else to say, when there is no request to make, when there is no testimony to present, when there is no blessing to point to, may our hearts still be able to say:

Father, thank You.

Not because of something.

But simply because of You.

Just You, and You alone.