Title Prayer (10)
Contents
Prayer of thanksgiving (10) (Col 4:2)
The prayer we learn today is the prayer of thanksgiving.
1. Thanksgiving
Praise is our exaltation of the existence or character of God. For example, God's love, sincerity, and power ... these things are exalted. So, what is gratitude? Gratitude is an act of expressing gratitude for what God has done for us. It is gratitude to express our gratitude while thinking of the grace and blessings that God has given us for us.
A prayer of thanksgiving is as important as a prayer of praise. When I learned the prayer of praise earlier, I thought about why the prayer of praise is important, and he said that prayer of praise is a prayer that focuses on God, not on oneself. When we focus on our own circumstances, problems, and difficulties, while we pray, we fall into discouragement and in the end we do not experience victory. However, if you focus on the existence and disposition of God, such as God's power and faithfulness, rather than looking at yourself, your problems will seem small and you will gain courage and strength instead. So you live a victorious life.
Prayers of thanksgiving also focus on God, not on ourselves. It can be said that thanksgiving is realizing the blessings received from God and confessing them to God. When we give thanks in this way, we naturally turn our attention to God.
What else can we give to God other than praise and thanksgiving!
Psalm 116:12 “With what shall I repay the Lord for all the favors he has given me”
How can we repay all the grace God has given us? Psalm 116:17 confesses this: “I will offer a sacrifice of thanks to you, and I will call on the name of the Lord.” There is little we can do to repay God's grace other than thanks and praise. God wants us to hear this confession of thanks. He is pleased with that confession.
2. When do you give thanks?
1) When we pray, we should pray with a heart of thanksgiving all the time.
We should express our gratitude moment by moment as we pray. Consider, for example, Paul's prayer. How does he express his gratitude in prayer?
Colossians 4:2 “continue in prayer, and be awake in it with thanksgiving”
He told me to stay awake with thanksgiving in prayer. In other words, when you pray, always do it with a grateful heart. It is a prayer to always express gratitude.
Phil 4:6-7 “[6] Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, [7] and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, may enter your hearts and will keep your thoughts.”
It is said that when we ask, we will come to God with thanksgiving. When we see this, we can see that we should always have a heart of gratitude in our hearts when we pray. Prayer is to be done in a spirit of thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7 “[6] Therefore, since ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him [7] Rooted and built up in him, steadfast in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” told me to do it
2) When our Lord prayed on this earth, he was filled with the spirit of thanksgiving. In the Gospels, there are many things that the Lord was thankful for.
John 11:41 “The stone was removed, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” After raising Lazarus from the dead, we can see that the Lord prays a prayer of thanks.
Mark 8:6 “Jesus commanded the crowds to sit on the ground. Then he took seven loaves, and after giving thanks, broke them and gave them to the people, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.” When distributing the bread to the crowds, he gave thanks first.
Matthew 11:25 “Then Jesus answered and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you for hiding these things from the wise and prudent and revealing them to little children.” In this way, we can see that the Lord always prayed a prayer of thanks.
3. Now let's think about how specifically we should audit.
When we pray, we need to be spiritually awake and pray, but likewise, we may need to be alert when giving thanks. Watching means not praying without thinking, but carefully examining the contents of gratitude. Think of what the Lord has done for me. And put those blessings into words. that's thanks
So, the most important thing to give thanks is to think. You can be thankful only when you take time to reflect on what kind of grace God has given you. When you think about the past, you will naturally think of things to be grateful for. Think about the things around you. Something to be grateful for will come to mind.
Now let's take a look at some of the factors that we can be grateful for.
1) Give thanks for spiritual blessings.
Everyone! What are some of the blessings God has bestowed on me these days? The grace given through the Word, answers to prayers, deeper spiritual experiences, gifts, passion, and dreams and faith strengthened.... Think about these spiritual blessings and confess your gratitude.
2) Give thanks for material blessings.
Are there any material blessings God has given you recently? Have you ever had an unexpected income? Reflect on even the smallest details. Have you ever received a good gift as well as money? Or maybe I could be thankful for the chair I'm sitting in, and for the air in a warm room on a cold winter's day. Gratitude for even the smallest details will enrich my prayers.
3) Give thanks with physical blessings.
If there is no suffering of disease, be thankful for it. If you feel pain in one leg, be grateful that the other leg is healthy. If you have poor eyesight, be grateful for good hearing. You can be grateful for your heart beating. Be grateful for the little things
4) Be thankful for outward blessings.
Some blessings have nothing to do with you but you can be grateful for. For example, I can thank you for my friend. I can be thankful for the country I live in or because of my job. Just avoid vague gratitude. “Thank you for the blessings you gave to the worship service last week.” Instead of giving thanks like this, give thanks with specific details.
It's also meaningful to remember things you weren't grateful for before. To do this, take a quiet time to meditate. There are times when I lie down and look back on my past life, and when I look back, I realize again how much grace I have received from God. You realize that there are so many things to be grateful for.
So will you. I can be thankful for the friend who first shared the gospel with me. You can be thankful for the first Bible you read. Or I can be thankful as a Sunday School teacher who welcomed and loved me when I first came to church.
No matter what situation we are in, if we have a heart of gratitude, we can be thankful enough. The Bible says, "In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Giving thanks for everything is what the Lord wants. I hope you will always be a grateful believer.