Day 66 - One Beautiful Day

In central Alabama it was a beautiful sun shiny day in the mid to high 80's. In two more days we will be in our last state - Georgia. Today I rode 44 miles in 2 hours and 7 minutes for an average of 20.7 mph. I feel good at that speed. Yesterday I looked at verse 3 of Psalm 100. That verse looks back at verses 1 and 2 and explains why; why we should "Make a joyful noise, serve the lord with gladness, come into his presence, and why we know that the Lord - he is God." Those are things we should do and verse 3 explains why - because He made us, we are His, we are His people, and we are the sheep of His pasture. But verse three also looks forward to verse 4. Because in verse 4, the psalmist gives us three more things we are to do because we belong to Him. First, he says to enter His gates with thanksgiving. So many times I have heard people, and even Christians say, "I don't have anything to be thanksful for." Really? Is the fact that He made us enough to thank Him? Is the fact that we are His enough to thank Him? Is the fact that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture enough of a reason to thank Him. As a Christian, I just gave you four reasons to thank Him and to be thankful. See, those are all descriptions of having a relationship with the Lord that we know is God. Oh how we say we want that relationship. We like the fact that the Lord loves us, and gives us what we need, and that he is with us. But we only focus on that, then we have a very one-sided relationship. He has put His all into it but what do we put into it? While there are yet a couple more things that he wants from us, we have now looked at 5 things that He can expect from us. To just think about the verbs. We are to make, serve, come, know, and enter. All of those things are a part of having a relationship with almighty God. Talk to you tomorrow.