Episode #322 Thank Him Before the Outcome – Everyday Awake

Hey, friends. Have you ever noticed how gratitude changes the atmosphere in a room? It doesn't erase the hard things, but it reorders what we see first. When I start the day grumbling, everything feels heavier and it's kind of easy for me to start the day grumbling. I am not a morning person. But when I start with thanksgiving, before anything is solved or anything is handled, it softens my heart to notice God anew. Psalm 100 gives us a picture of that heart posture, and I'll read verses 1-5 for us. It says,

¹ “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
² Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
³ Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
⁵ For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:1-5 ESV)

This Psalm was part of the ancient worship rhythm, families singing as they entered the temple gates. Gratitude wasn't what they offered after worship, it's how they began worship.
Thanksgiving is participation. It's how we enter God's presence. Gratitude opens our awareness to his goodness already at work. When I thank God, not just for the blessings, the things I understand, but also for the ones I don't yet see, I'm declaring trust. I'm trusting that he is faithful before the outcome, and so I'm thanking him for being him.

Where I've gotten off in this before is thanking him for a specific outcome and setting all of my attention and honestly, affection on the outcome that I desired. But entering into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise means giving him thanks for who he is, independent of what the outcome looks like, declaring trust that he will care for me, no matter what is ahead.

One of the really tender ways that I've experienced this is walking with my mom through the last months of her life before she entered heaven. One of my prayers for her as she was battling cancer in her body and all of the health complications that came as a result of that was asking God for his greatest grace for her. Yes, we asked that she would have her body freed from cancer, this side of heaven. Yes, we asked for healing and we asked for God's greatest grace. And I had the unique privilege of thanking him in advance, not just for the specific outcome I wanted to see on earth. But for the greatest grace that I knew he would show my mom independent of what it looked like in my earthly experience. I got to thank him in advance that I knew he was faithful to her no matter what, that his care for her was good, that he was faithful to her as one of his people. As his dearly loved child, as a sheep of his pasture. God is faithful even before the outcome and even for outcomes that we don't fully get to see this side of heaven.

Maybe that's why Thanksgiving isn't just for the dinner table, it's also for the first thought of the day. The moment you open your eyes, you're invited to enter God's presence with gratitude because in him we live and move and have our being, and so he is there. Tune your attention and your affection to him with gratitude before the rush, before the emails, before the world starts tugging. Pause and thank him. It's not just a good habit, although it is that, too. Gratitude is an open doorway for living daily, aware of God's presence.

And I don't wanna leave this conversation just between you and me here on this podcast. Instead, I wanna leave you with a question ,as I always do, to take this topic into conversation with God and see what he might want to share with you.

God, what can I thank you for as I enter this new day with you?

Now, this is one of those questions that's easy to fill in the blanks ourselves. I'm sure you can think of tons of things to be thankful for. But the better invitation is to lay this question before the Lord, to pause and listen to see what he might spark in your spirit. That this would be a shared conversation and a deeper, more personal shared experience with him as you give thanks to the thing he prompts in your heart.

So here's that question one more time:

God, what can I thank you for as I enter this new day with you?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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