Verse of the Day for November 12

Psalm 100 is about how to walk into a room. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Worshippers coming up to the temple did not stroll in. They came through the gate already thanking.

Before that, verse 3 tells them who they are. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Not self made. Not owners of the pasture. Sheep, which is humbling and also restful.

Those two ideas belong together when you have a hard conversation ahead. You are walking into a room as well, perhaps with a husband, a landlord, a pastor, a grown child. And the person across the table is also someone God made, not someone who made themselves.

Going in with thanksgiving changes the temperature. It reminds you that you are not the shepherd of this situation. It softens the urge to win. And verse 5 puts something firm under your feet: his truth endureth to all generations. You do not have to force the whole truth into the room. It will outlast the argument.

Before you knock on that door or press call, thank God for one real thing about the other person. Then go in.

The person you dread talking to was made by God, not by themselves.

Thanksgiving at the door lowers the heat inside the room.