I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
​
​
​
​
​
Contact Terry:
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
​
​
​
​
​
Contact Terry:
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
​
​
​
​
​
Contact Terry:
PRAYING WITH THANKSGIVING
April:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him;
bless his name!
- Psalm 100:4
First things first
If we're not careful, our prayer life can devolve into merely a prayer list. We come to God with our many requests for healing, provision, peace, and guidance for our Nana, our friends, our church family, our country and our dog. While these pleas are encouraged in the Bible and precious in God's sight, we want to be cautious that we're not subtly turning God into a genie in a bottle - there only to hear and grant our petitions.
​
Rather than jumping right into asking God for the things we want him to do, Psalm 100:4 paints a picture of interactions with the Lord that begin with thanksgiving. The psalmist says "Enter his gates with thanksgiving." He envisions the worshipper coming into the temple thanking God for all the good things He has done for his people. We would do well to heed this exhortation in our own times of prayer. Before we come and tell God about all that isn't right in the world and in our lives, we can begin by thanking Him for all the good he has already done for us.
The effect on us
One of the most oft-quoted verse of the New Testament is Philippians 4:6-7:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
​
The highly coveted "peace that surpasses understanding" that Paul is talking about is the result of prayer. And not just prayers of request, but he is very intentional to add in the phrase "with thanksgiving." A posture of thanks is an integral part of walking in God's peace. Even those who don't yet know God have caught on to the positive effects that gratitude can have on our hearts and minds. This can be seen in the recent preoccupation with things like gratitude journals and gratitude meditation.
​
Prayer requests without thanksgiving can create a mentality of lack or desperation because they focus our attention only on what we don't have or what isn't right in our lives. Intentionally saturating our prayers with thanksgiving can guard us from such pitfalls. Prayers of thanksgiving will give God the praise and the credit he deserves for all the good in our lives, but will also lead to the side-benefit of our own renewed mind guarded by the peace of God.
CHALLENGE
The challenge for the month of April is to begin every prayer with prayers of thanksgiving. Thank God for anything: your job, your home, your vehicle, your family, your cat, his kindness, his gentleness, his compassion, the cross, the resurrection, the Holy Spirit - whatever you can think of. Pay attention to the effect that this practice has on the well-being of your heart and mind throughout the month.