Meaningful Prayer
I took a class in seminary called Theology of Prayer. It was beneficial to explore every passage in Scripture on prayer through the semester. One of the projects for that class involved completing a week of thanksgiving and writing up a report on that week. The project was pretty easy but remarkably valuable. Each day there was a simple but new passage of Scripture and application I was to complete. I wrote down all of the material things I enjoyed that I needed to give thanks for. I wrote down the names of special people in my life for whom I was to give thanks and then express my gratitude to them.
But the most valuable day was day 5, the day I was to give thanks for every little thing in my day. I began to verbalize (silently) thanks for everything I touched and saw, every person I spoke to, every event, etc. It was not until that day that I began to grasp the tremendous benefit of a thanksgiving routine. I thanked God for my Bic pen to write with, my computer to type on, the automatic payment gas pump that saved me time, my watch to keep track of it, the pavement on the road and the car I drove on that road.
Those items are no big deal to us today but were all major inventions when they were first developed. We hardly even enjoy these things because we have lost our sense of gratitude for the things that we have and use all the time. We tend to become like spoiled children who after receiving so much have come to expect it. If the pen doesn’t work, we get frustrated. If the paved road has potholes, we get angry with the city for not fixing them quickly enough. Rather than living thankful lifestyles, we live critical lifestyles. We tend to see all that is wrong instead of all that is right.
Please, don’t let thanksgiving be over. God has given you so much. PAY ATTENTION TO IT!! Your happiness depends on that very perspective. And when you think about it, our songs of worship are repudiated by our God if we are singing them from ungrateful lips. Worship and thanksgiving go hand-in-hand. Let’s live that way!