As a child, one of the things my mom taught me from a very young age was to always say “thank you” when I received something. For the most part, I still follow that habit of thankfulness in my relationships with others. However, I must confess that there is one area of my life where I do not express thankfulness as readily: my spiritual life. I have a feeling that I am not alone in this tendency. This brings me to the third letter in our ACTS prayer model, T: Thanksgiving.
If you are anything like me, you take for granted all the blessings God gives us, whether tangible things such as our families, our homes, our jobs, and our material goods, or the intangible things in life such as circumstances, guidance, and direction. There are so many things that we have to be thankful for, but do we take the time to thank the One who gave them to us?
Thankfulness is another theme than runs through Scripture. David records his thankfulness in the Psalms (108:8,9; 109:30,32; 138:2). Paul gives thanks for his salvation (1 Thes. 15:57) or for the people God brought into his life (Eph. 1:6). Thankfulness is found on the lips of God’s people.
In looking at Scripture as well as reflecting on my own blessings, I have come up with a few things that I am thankful for. Here is a very abbreviated list:
I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who created me, saved me, and sustains me.
I am thankful for my wife and children whom God has blessed me with.
I am thankful for the opportunity to be called into full-time ministry to serve the body of Christ.
I am thankful for the privilege of pouring into others as God has poured into me.
I am thankful for bringing my family to Texas and to the Arlington Church where I not only get to be a blessing to others but am blessed by others.
I challenge you this week to begin writing down what you are thankful for. Then when you go into your prayer time, pray that list. As you pray, remember to be thankful not just for the “feel good” things but also recall those experiences and situations when you might have suffered pain but that God used or will use for His glory. I guarantee that as you begin to pray about what you are thankful for, your heart will be drawn closer to your heavenly Father who gives us all the blessings of this life and the promise of the life to come.
Conversation:
In what ways do you find yourself not expressing thanks, especially in your prayer time?
What specific things are you thankful for?
Recommended Reading
For over two decades Too Busy Not to Pray has stood as a classic on prayer, helping Christians all over the world slow down to draw near to God.
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Two truths haven't changed in all these years: God is the same powerful, just, holy God he's always been; and true prayer―prayer that changes us and allows us to participate in God's work in the world―can't happen on the fly. So Bill Hybels once again offers us his practical, time-tested ideas on slowing down to pray. Revised throughout and including a new introduction and new chapter on prayer and compassion for the world, this twentieth-anniversary edition of Too Busy Not to Pray calls both young and old to make prayer a priority, and broadens our vision for what our eternal, powerful God does when his people slow down to pray.