Can praying with thankfulness really be done?

A couple posts back, in something I called “What The . . . ?” I touched on the fact that so many Christians that I meet seem to worry and fret about life just as much as your average everyday pagan.

Today, John over at “Discovering The Real Jesus In Monroe” brought up the radical nature of Jesus’ teaching, especially his teaching on money, clothes and possessions. John is right of course. People the world over are tremendously status conscious. If you don’t possess the Spirit of Jesus, if you don’t know what it’s like to be forgiven and to be part of the family of Creator God, then one’s worth and value, one’s sense of security and belonging must come from fleeting things like looks, or intelligence or wealth etc.

The verse that I used in that previous post was, “Do not be anxious about anything; but in everything, by prayer and petition and with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And if you do this, the peace of God which is beyond anything that the human mind can understand or comprehend will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” This verse goes hand in hand with “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, so that at just the right time He will lift you up. Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares about you.”

Jesus said that if we put Him first in our lives we will not have to worry because He will provide for us everything that we need. Can you imagine a life without worry and anxiety? Talk about radical thinking. If people stopped listening to what the world teaches and if they trusted Jesus enough to actually obey Him, it would put people like me out of business. Virtually all the clients that I see have at some level become incapacitated by worry, anxiety and depression. I’ve said before, but I’ll say it again here, most people that I come into contact with feel as though they’re irresponsible or negligent in some way if they don’t worry. Reality is, worry, at least for those whose goal in life is to serve their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is a complete waste of time. In fact it's flat out disobedience and an insult to Him who created us.

What I really wanted to point out today was this. Did you notice that bit about, praying with thanksgiving? Do you know what that means? Have you experienced what it means?
. First of all, Jesus gives several examples, both in word and by example of what He means by asking God for what we need. Some people say things like, “Why should I have to ask God for something when He already knows what I need?” The why doesn’t really matter. The fact is, asking someone for something is perhaps the single most powerful form of communication between humans and it’s no different between us and God. While teaching on prayer, Jesus said via two or three parables that God listens to us, He considers what we are saying and He bases His decisions upon what we are saying to Him. Jesus taught that not only are we to ask our Heavenly Father for what we need, we are to be persistent in our asking. According to Jesus, our Heavenly Father who loves us far more than our earthly parents could ever love us will see to it that what we need is what we will get.

. Second, when one’s will is in sync with God’s will, thanksgiving is a natural outcome of prayer because one knows that whatever you are asking for is exactly what God wants for your life. For example, “Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, please make me into the kind of husband and dad that you want me to become.” Knowing that this is God’s will for me, and confirming / showing / confessing by my words that I also want that for myself, I simply ask.

Based on the amazing and wonderful experience of previous changes that God has brought about in my life, thankfulness is a natural outflow of this type of prayer because the result is as good as done. Having asked for these changes, all I need to do now is watch as my life unfolds in such a way that will bring about the needed changes. Do I need to be more patient? God will bring into my life situations whereby I can exercise and develop greater patience. Do I need more self-control? God will bring into my life opportunities for me to turn to Him when I’m tempted to give in to various cravings that wouldn’t be good for me or for my family.

Years ago, in my pre Christian days, these kinds of changes were impossible. While I still have a long way to go, Creator God has brought me so incredibly far. Not by my might or by my power or by my strength, or by my mind over matter efforts, but by every word that flows out of the mouth of my Saviour and Lord - including the verses listed above.