Prayer To Be Aware Of All We Have And To Overflow With Thankfulness

 One of the ways our church is seeking to connect us with one another during these days when we cannot meet together is to send out a text message 2 or 3 times a week. 

Here are a couple of the latest ones I’ve received:

Not one promise from God is empty of power, for with God there is no such thing as impossibility.

God, thank you for today. Thank you that you want to help and heal me.  Thank you for giving me what I need for where I am.  I trust you today.

Along with those encouraging words I was reading in Psalm 147 and here are some of that Psalm:

Sing out your thanks to the Lord; sing praises to our God with a harp. He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the grass grow in mountain pastures. He gives food to the wild animals and feeds the young ravens when they cry. He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.  Psalm 147:7-11

Well, I’m not going to have us sing out our thanks to God today but we do have much to give thanks for.  I particularly loved the phrase in the text message that said, “Thank you for giving me what I need for where I am.”  I think that’s what the writer of the Psalm meant about God delighting in those who put their hope in His unfailing love.  We don’t see all the answers in the ways we thought we wanted them, but we can rest in God’s promises to give us what we need for where we are.

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.  Psalm 28:7, Psalm 118:1

Lord, you are our strength and our protection.  You help us in ways we couldn’t have imagined and have brought us to this place in our life where we can trust You, knowing that You help us.  You are good and Your faithful love is with us every moment of every day.  When all else fails we can always know that we are not alone, we are not needing to rest in our own wisdom or strength, but we have the all-powerful, all-knowing, one true God with us, acting on our behalf. That does give us joy and fills our hearts with thanksgiving. 

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.  1 Corinthians 11:23-25

We’ve prayed these words before but we are touched by Your own thankful heart in the face of laying down Your life for us.  The bread and wine represented the horrible torture and death You knew was imminent and yet You gave thanks.  Thank You, God, for the reality of your covenant between us and You – confirmed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, that our sins are washed clean by His blood.

let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22

Thank you that our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean.  Any residual shame and guilt we are carrying today we lay at Your feet.  We don’t want to waste the precious gift of all that Jesus won for us.  Thank you for the washing of our souls that has removed everything the evil one tries to use to harass and drag us down.  We are clean. We are free.  We are thankful.

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

Even as we give thanks for the profound gifts of Your love evident in our lives today, we want to continue to grow in understanding and be rooted in such a steady faith that we overflow with gratitude.  Let that be our witness of what You do in us today, we pray.  Amen