Thanksgiving: A Special form of Prayer (Copy)
All right. The title may seem a little inflammatory. But when we think of prayer, we have different forms it takes. I think most often most common is petition prayers, viz. prayers we direct to God for our needs, and those of others. We have prayers of intercessions. Kind of like petitioning, but instead of petitioning on behalf of ourselves this is prayer directed to God on behalf of the needs of others. Praise prayer is when we just praise God; praise him for his almightiness, his goodness, his sovereignty. Now prayers of Thanksgiving are the truly altruistic prayers. The prayers that solely are to thank God for the blessings he gives us in our lives.
I think prayers of thanksgiving are the easiest to forget for the nominal Christian. We tend to forget God when we are in the midst of excitement, merriment, joy, and so on. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing. We are only human. However, there is something to be said that we tend to forget about God when things are going well and we ought to give thanks first thing, but when things are bad we definitely reach out to God and as soon as that bad event has happened, we quickly forget about God until the next emergency arrives.
Jesus throughout the Gospels give thanks to God the Father for the blessings he bestowed on the Son, when he multiplied the loaves, before he raised Lazarus from the dead and at the cross when his work was completed. Prayers of thanksgiving to God for all the good blessings he has given us should be first on our mind when something good happens to us. We should thank God immediately. Every good thing we thank God for.
This Thanksgiving, no matter how big or small it is, let us give thanks to God for all we have, not just materially speaking, but our families, love, life, possessions, and the opportunity to serve, love, and show mercy. Most of all, each day we reflect on our baptism in the death and resurrection of God’s most precious son our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ for redeeming us and giving us new life. May every day we give prayers of thanksgiving along with our other prayers, because there is always something to thank God for, namely for his Son Jesus Christ and our salvation in him. Amen.
