A friend sent me a video sermon series on prayer recently and as I watched the videos, I became convicted of my lack of thankfulness towards God. I have examined my prayer life and I now see that it is a pale visage of what it is supposed to be as it appears lackluster, having little vibrance and exuberance as it overflows with ingratitude towards my Heavenly Father. When I go before Him, I enter into His gates with complaints and into His courts with accusations. I am unappreciative of His goodness and criticize His ways. Thankfully, I serve a faithful loving Lord who gives me so much mercy even though I do the opposite of what I should do as I enter into His throne room.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5
Thanksgiving is so important when we pray. There is always something to give thanks for, but we seem to often forget this. If God gives us nothing else in this life, He has given us so much more than we ever deserve – the gift of eternal life. And all we have to do is receive it.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 1 John 5:11-12
The Father has given us abundant life through His Son, Jesus. However, it may not be the abundant life of material riches, fame, and success that we desire or expect. If we lack physical wealth, we can still have love, joy, peace and so much more. This is the abundant life that God offers us. But we choose sometimes to neglect these gifts and search for what the world calls success. We become dissatisfied with our lives feeling that God has not met our expectations and then we go to Him upset, brooding like a child. And in our sullenness, we miss all the things that God has done.
My church has been doing a series on the Book of Ruth and one of the insights that stood out to me was that Naomi wanted to be called Mara which means bitter, and she said that she was “empty” even though God’s goodness was overflowing right beside her in the form of Ruth. Are we also missing all the good that God has done for us because we are wallowing in self-pity and drowning in our sorrow? Are we looking at the glass as half empty when we should be looking at it as half full? We should not miss the fact that it is not only that God works all things for good for those who love Him and who are walking in His purpose, but it is that God is good. That is His character and when we truly know Him for who He really is then we can thank Him for being good because that is just who He is.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His faithfulness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34
We serve a good, faithful loving God who is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. We should never forget to be giving Him thanks because He has already done so much good for us despite all the bad that is happening. Look around and count your blessings. You may be surprised at all God has done that you may not have seen before, because your focus has been on what you lack instead of what you have. God tells us to pray to Him and ask whatever we like but let us not be ungrateful for what He has done. No one likes it when someone is always coming asking for help in different ways, but never says thanks. You may feel like you are being taken advantage of and you may not want to help that person anymore. So why should we treat God with ingratitude when He has blessed us in so many ways, even if we don’t feel blessed? We should not let our feelings dictate our thanksgiving, but the truth should lead us to be grateful to a generous God. And the truth is God has done great and marvelous things that cannot be surpassed. Therefore, we should never forget to give Him thanks.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
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