A Gracious Thing

"...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication 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"

Php 4:6,7 

Gratitude. A simple word that conveys so much. It isn't easy to stop worrying about the everyday parts of our lives, but God tells us how in the next part of the verse: “pray about everything … thank him for all he has done.” Gratitude brings peace and when you start to worry, pray. This is simplistic. Yet, it is reiterated again by James "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.(Jas 1:2,3)."  It is hard to be grateful, when you feel abused, unappreciated, tread on, and otherwise downcast. The world closes in on you, and you want to just quit. 

God  wants us to ask him for what we need and want. More than 20 times in the New Testament, we’re told to “ask” him. But he wants us to ask with gratefulness. Thankful that God has preserved us, appreciative that He has delivered us, understanding that He is walking with us. The Bible urges us to be specific in our requests — and our praises. Instead of a simple “thank you for everything," he wants us to tell him what we’re grateful for. Thanking God in advance is a big step of faith. The Bible says that when we have the faith to thank God ahead of time, the more God works in our lives. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of his people. He empowers and uses our thanksgiving as an instrument of power in our lives.

Gratitude and prayer help us to see that God is working even when evil seems to be prevailing. As David writes "I will praise you forever for what you have done, and I will put my hope in your name; for this is what is good in the presence of your faithful. (Psa.52:9)"  

We have a lyric in our songbooks in a song called "Follow Me." "But if by death to living they can Thy glory see, I'll take my cross and follow close to Thee." Perhaps evil has come upon me for God's glory? If I have striven to be godly and suffer as an evildoer, the Bible states "For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (1 Pet.1:20)." 

What are you grateful to God for? Spend some time in prayer, thanking God for those things — even before they happen.

Jim