RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Tuesday 22 January 2013: SEPARATING THE TWINS? by Pastor E. A. Adeboye

RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Tuesday 22 January 2013

SEPARATING THE TWINS? 

By Pastor E. A. Adeboye

Memorise: "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving" Psalm 69:30

Read Psalm 69:29-31

Bible in one year: 1 Samuel 11-13

Key points: You get the best from God when you combine thanksgiving with praise 

Believers are designated as vessels whose content should always include thanksgiving. Anyone who truly lives up to this designation will be loved, appreciated and valued wherever the fellow is. If people find your presence often irritating, check yourself; ¡t could be that you are carrying complaints and murmuring instead of what you were designed to carry thanksgiving. The one who ¡s full of grumbling will be detested both by believers and unbelievers. Complaints reduce your value while thanksgiving increases your worth. Your content also affects your disposition. If you are full of thanks always, you will always have a positive mental attitude and see things from the sunny side of life; but if you always manifest a negative attitude to situations in life, ¡t ¡s most likely you have loaded your system with complaints. A thankful individual will therefore enjoy good health because of the constant state of joy of his heart occasioned by his positive mental attitude (Proverbs 1 7:22).

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name.” Psalm 100:4

To effectively access the throne of God, you need to understand the protocol of heaven. While approaching heaven’s gate, the first thing the angels expect you to have is thanksgiving. After opening the gate to you, before allowing you access to God’s courts, they will further check if you have praise. In other words, thanksgiving is your passport into God’s pearly gates while praise grants you access to his courts acting like a visa. This means, thanksgiving and praise are twin sisters that must follow each other sequentially if your fellowship with God is to be effective. How often and how effectively do you combine both? Whenever you praise God without thanking Him, something is missing. From today, come into His presence having your passport of thanksgiving stamped with the visa of praise.