Every time God opens a gate, every time He opens a door, we must look at it as an opportunity that we may not see again. So when God opens a gate for us, we must make up our minds to go through it. We must understand, however, that we cannot simply enter through God’s gates any way we desire.
When we pass through a gate, the gate is taking us to another level in God. God does not allow us to go through a gate simply for the sake of going through. Every opportunity God gives us, every door or window God opens is for the purpose of moving us to another level of spiritual progression.
Psalm 100:4 tells us that we should appreciate God for what he has done. We should always start with giving thanks; if we start with thanks, we will end with gladness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our perfect example, at Lazarus’ grave, He gave thanks to God, (John 11:41). When feeding about 5,000 men, He gave thanks, (Luke 9:16). So, to bring down the presence of God, we must thank Him and praise Him for who He is, our Redeemer.
We tend to thank God based on the things He has done for us and praise God when we acknowledge Him as God. That is why the psalmist says he will enter into His gates with thanksgiving and God’s court with praise. We should cultivate the habit of praising God for who He is, not only thanking HIM for what He has done.
As Christians, we need to be able to see beyond the here and now to the reality of what lies ahead. We need to be able to live in view of the light at the end of the tunnel. If we have an eternal perspective, understand what God is doing in us, with us and where we are heading. We will be in a good position to grow in the grace that God has given each of us being conformed to the image of his Son Jesus the Christ. Paul writes, “Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day.”
For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison because we are not looking at what can be seen, but at what cannot be seen. 2 Corinthians 4:18: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
In closing,
Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Bernard Harper, Sr. is pastor of Emmanuel New Covenant Ministry and a member of the Liberty County United Ministerial Alliance.