A Prayer of Thanksgiving - Encouragement Café - November 22, 2017

A Prayer of Thanksgiving
By Carolyn Dale Newell
Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)

Every prayer should be one of thanksgiving.  This verse is sandwiched between two verses that help us understand it better.

The reason that we should not be anxious, worried or fretful about anything is because

The Lord is at hand! Philippians 4:5b (NKJV)

God is always with us.  He has promised to never leave us.  Rather than being anxious, we should pray, and we should pray with a thankful attitude.

We should thank God not only for what He is going to do, but we should thank Him for what He already is doing.  He has saved us.  He provides all our needs.  He strengthens us when we are weak.  He has promised not to give us anything that we cannot bear. 

We should even thank Him for the trials that we are going through because they are for our growth as a Christian, and that brings glory to God.  We can be thankful for God’s love and His mercy.  We should be thankful for His sovereignty and His power.

It is easy during the Thanksgiving season to become more thankful, but we need to keep this attitude throughout the year.  We take too many things for granted, and we usually don’t think about it until they are gone. 

Instead of being thankful for what we have, we allow greed to take over, and we want more.  Sometimes, God takes something from us in order to draw us closer to Him and away from this materialistic world.

There is a result to thankful prayer, and it is found in the following verse:

the peace of God... will guard your heart and mind… Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)

Peace is the opposite of anxiety.  Wouldn’t it be better to face the trials of our lives in peace, knowing that God has a plan and He will work it out for His purpose and our good?

Now that is really something for which to thank God.

Isn’t it amazing that the key to peace is thankfulness?

There is something about giving thanks to God that washes the anxieties out of our hearts and fills us with peace.

Make a point every day to devote a few minutes thanking God.  After Thanksgiving is over, don’t forget to possess an attitude of gratitude every day, especially on Black Friday, which can get crazy.

Dear Lord, sometimes I fail to thank You.  Today, I just want to thank You for salvation, for mercy, for grace, for my Bible, for my church, for my family, for my health, for my job, for Your provision, for Your protection, for…

© 2017 by Carolyn Dale Newell.  All rights reserved.

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