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Developing an Attitude of Prayerful Gratitude - March 30, 2006
One of the questions I have been asking myself in my daily walk with God lately has been "Why are my prayers seemingly not being heard?" I know that God has reasons for not answering prayers in the way that I would ask Him to, but I decided to dig in a little bit, and God answered my question.
We are given a command in the Psalms to "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name." (Psalm 100:4 av) Something that I realized in my life is that my thankfulness to God is anemic at best. I realized that I came back from the slums of India last year so on fire, and so thankful to God that I had been so blessed, but life started to get in the way again and I forgot to nurture the gratitude towards God. We are shown in the book of Romans what can happen when we forget to be thankful. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." (Romans 1:21 av) A darkened heart is not what I want to be accused of having.
I talked to a few people to see what they thank God for in their daily prayer life. I could not believe what I heard. Most people were not taking time in their prayer life to thank God. They did as I did, they entered into the prayer with a small laundry list of requests, a few prayers for my friends, and family and authorities in my life; and that was it. God has provided His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins. As if that is not enough to be thankful for, consider your family, friends, health, safety, religious freedom; the list is endless.
When we are truly and deeply thankful with God, we will find peace. The Bible says "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to that which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." (Colossians 3:15 av)
The book of Psalms mentions the word thanks nineteen times. That is just one word. Many of the words that David used were in thankfulness. David was considered a friend of God. I want to be considered a friend of God. I will give Him more thanks. I must change my paradigm to remember God in all things.
How many of us feel we can truly thank God, even in the worst circumstances of life? That is the goal to aim at; to thank God in all things, in all circumstances, in all places. Thankfulness does not have to be a big production. You do not have to pray as the Pharisees did, loudly and often. Just remember to spice up your prayer life by being thankful for that which God has done. I suggest starting out each prayer with what you are thankful for. That is what "entering into the gates with thanksgiving" means to me.
Contributed by Carl Holmes: jcubsdad@msn.com Carl is author of the blog, Saturday Night Current Events
One of the questions I have been asking myself in my daily walk with God lately has been "Why are my prayers seemingly not being heard?" I know that God has reasons for not answering prayers in the way that I would ask Him to, but I decided to dig in a little bit, and God answered my question.
We are given a command in the Psalms to "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name." (Psalm 100:4 av) Something that I realized in my life is that my thankfulness to God is anemic at best. I realized that I came back from the slums of India last year so on fire, and so thankful to God that I had been so blessed, but life started to get in the way again and I forgot to nurture the gratitude towards God. We are shown in the book of Romans what can happen when we forget to be thankful. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." (Romans 1:21 av) A darkened heart is not what I want to be accused of having.
I talked to a few people to see what they thank God for in their daily prayer life. I could not believe what I heard. Most people were not taking time in their prayer life to thank God. They did as I did, they entered into the prayer with a small laundry list of requests, a few prayers for my friends, and family and authorities in my life; and that was it. God has provided His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins. As if that is not enough to be thankful for, consider your family, friends, health, safety, religious freedom; the list is endless.
When we are truly and deeply thankful with God, we will find peace. The Bible says "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to that which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." (Colossians 3:15 av)
The book of Psalms mentions the word thanks nineteen times. That is just one word. Many of the words that David used were in thankfulness. David was considered a friend of God. I want to be considered a friend of God. I will give Him more thanks. I must change my paradigm to remember God in all things.
How many of us feel we can truly thank God, even in the worst circumstances of life? That is the goal to aim at; to thank God in all things, in all circumstances, in all places. Thankfulness does not have to be a big production. You do not have to pray as the Pharisees did, loudly and often. Just remember to spice up your prayer life by being thankful for that which God has done. I suggest starting out each prayer with what you are thankful for. That is what "entering into the gates with thanksgiving" means to me.
Contributed by Carl Holmes: jcubsdad@msn.com Carl is author of the blog, Saturday Night Current Events
