A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is 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.

Psalm 100 (emphasis mine)

If there’s any passage that I feel is totally played it’s that one. Especially verse 4. I would be curious how many church services include that verse on any given Sunday. In any given part of the world. As a Christian, it’s just one of those verses that’s IN me. As in totally ingrained.

Well, about a month ago, a couple of well placed words from those close to me, a couple of well placed words from God in song form, and one sermon spurred me towards trying what I’m calling my “prayer experiment.”

I haven’t asked God for anything in a month.

A month. Not one petition. Not one “God, would you just…” Not one “I ask for [blank] in Jesus’ name.” Not even one “would Your will be done.” (That last one is hard for a former/disgruntled Calvinist as myself.)

My prayers for the last month have only consisted of thanksgiving, praise, exaltation, and declaration. I just thank God for who he is. Thank God for things I have. Even thanking God for things I would normally complain about. I declare that God is good. I declare that he is sovereign. I declare that his will is perfect. I declare that he only desires what is best for us (not just the Christians).

The interesting thing about all this is that I feel more hopeful and happy and care-free as it pertains to many of the stressful parts of my life than I have in quite a while. What’s even more interesting is that my view of God is much more personal and more intimate than it has been in some time as well.

So, like I do, I started think of the theological implications of this. At first it just sounded like an interesting challenge. But as it ramped up and kept going (with no signs of stopping any time soon), I started realizing that theres a bigger picture here. A bigger point.

God was showing me something big.

I don’t think its any coincidence that the writer of the Psalm mentioned “his gates” and “his courts.” Picture a palace, and picture Christ in the throne room, on the throne. When you get to the palace, you’d go through the gates first. You aren’t in the presence of the King yet. Then you’ll enter the courts, which is the inner circle of the palace where people would congregate, but you aren’t in the throne room yet—you aren’t in His presence. I believe that the bigger picture of this Psalm is that thanksgiving and praise is a way of getting our hearts in the right place before entering God’s presence.

I believe wholeheartedly that God want’s us to ask for things. I believe he wants to give us the desires of our heart as our desires align with his will—what’s best for us.

I also believe that most of the time I’m asking God for something, I’m asking him with the expectation that he might not answer my prayer, so I just pray harder and more aggressively. From there, I might start feeling good about it, “I’ve got faith like a mustard seed! God’s definitely going to answer my prayer.” And then when it doesn’t happen—or doesn’t happen how I want it to happen—the blame goes squarely on God.

I was expecting him to do my will. Because I came at him with a heart focused on me.

In other words, I entered his gates with an idea for what I want to happen, and his courts with a plan of making him do it.

I believe that if we come right out of (er, into) the gates with declaring how good God is, declaring how thankful we are for what we already have  and what he’s already done for us, then we enter his throne room—his presence—with a heart that understands that God knows what he’s doing. That God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31).

And not only are we preparing our hearts for his presence, we are also preparing our hearts for his answer. Let’s face it, God is confusing sometimes (most of the time). God’s will does not often line up with our will. At least in my case. And this is something that’s really hard for the human race. We like things to turn out like we want them to. This is one reason so many turn from God, because they don’t get why he doesn’t answer their prayers. (Chances are that he has, they just don’t recognize it because it wasn’t what they wanted to hear.) But when we recognize that God is good and that God is for us, we also are more prepared to hear what he has to say, even if it’s outside of our own will.

I’m not sure how long this experiment will last. I’m sure I’ll break and ask God for something sooner or later. But I have seen significant growth in the past four weeks through a simple, interesting challenge that I gave myself.

I encourage you to take the challenge. Even if it’s not a month or more like me. Even if it’s one prayer per day where you just stop asking and start thanking. Start declaring. Start worshipping.

Because it really is simple:

God is good.

God is for us.

And that’s the Gospel.