The Difference Between Praise and Thanksgiving - Part II

Originally posted on November 22, 2010 Yesterday we talked a little about the difference between Thanksgiving and Praise (read post here). Today I want to discuss with you what Thanksgiving is.

As we defined yesterday, Strong’s Concordance calls Praise as the acknowledging of His perfections, works, benefits, and excellence's.  When you praise you are focusing on who He is.  Thanksgiving is being thankful at what God has done historically in your life.

Thanksgiving is acknowledging what He has done.

Look at Psalm 100:4 - [quote]Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.[/quote]

When you thank God it opens the gates.  Thanksgiving reminds you of what He has done, which in turn you begin to access the ground work with your thanksgiving.  The gate is your first contact and it will not open up to you except with thanksgiving. So with our thanksgiving we thank Him for bringing us from sickness to health, bringing us from rags to riches, bringing us from sin and giving us grace.

Here is the cool thing, is that once we enter on the other side of the gates we have one more barrier before we get to His courts and that is offering our praise.  See the difference?  Our words of praise change from historic to powerful! Praise elevates us into God’s presence and fullness.  Our praise speaks to the circumstance, to the hurt.  Because our eyes are not focused on what He has done, but in the courts we can begin to praise Him for what He is about to do!

[quote]Psalm 22:3 says, “the Lord dwells in the praises of His people”[/quote]

Let Him dwell in you.

What are you thanking Him for this Thanksgiving?