How is your prayer life? Do you pray every day? How about multiple times per day? What do you pray about? Are your prayers all about you, your family, your friends, your wants? Do you include thanking God in your prayers?
We can all be a little selfish at times. We look at our needs, wants, and desires first. Beyond ourselves, we may extend our prayers to family and friends, including requests for what we believe is best for them. On rare occasions, we may make requests for our local community or country.
Giving thanks in our prayers is not always included, and when it is, it is often short and general. We aren’t likely to list off specific blessings. Our inclination is to generically thank God for all our blessings and move on. In fact, my personal experience is I often don’t stop to take time to remember every (or even just several) of the specific blessings God has blessed me with and thank Him for them.
When was the last time you thanked God for the following blessings? Your job, house, clothing, food, those new shoes, furniture, dishes, appliances, vehicle, pet, family, friends, acquaintances, the guy who was rude yesterday, the woman who bumped into you at the store, the kid who was screaming for a toy, the book you are reading, your phone, computer, internet, medicine, doctors, nurses, technicians, administrative people, and so much more.
God desires our thanks for everything we have, everything we experience, the person we are, and the person God is making us into. We run at a breakneck pace and forget to thank God for His blessings. We may not even think of some circumstances as blessings. Yet God uses every situation for our good.
I pray we all give thanks to God for His blessings. I pray we give thanks in all circumstances. I pray each one of us will take time to thank God for specific things we have and experience. Thank God for everything. Thank God in all situations. Thank God for who you are. Thank God for who you will be.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Marty Pressey 