I watched my mum over the years as she prays. In those childhood days with her, our devotion/and prayer time used to be relatively long. I had to endure her long moment of thanksgiving during the prayers. According to her; “Our thanksgiving must be more than our prayers.” I never understood what she meant until now. Truly, our thanksgiving must be more than our prayers.
Friend, your thanksgiving must be more than your prayers (or request) if you would live in the blessedness of the new covenant. In the new covenant, our understanding is that God has done all things for us (2 Corinthians 1:20, Ephesians 1:3). This understanding should make thanksgiving a major part of our prayers. Thanksgiving is not the burdensome routine we have to go through before we start to pray; it is the real prayer.
Most times, we have a list of our prayer requests but how many of us have our thanksgiving list (Psalms 103:1-5)? I mean, just the way you write out 50 things you want God to do for you, do you also have 50 things you want to thank God for? We know how to painstakingly take those requests one by one and pray them, do we also carefully take out those thanksgiving points and thank God for them or do we just summarize them?
As the year gradually wraps up, don’t be burdened and bothered by the myriads of needs and requests that you have, take time to thank God (Psalms 100:4). The throne of heaven is filled with serious bombardments this season as people throw their requests at God. Would you dare to do the exact opposite? Instead of only bombarding heaven with your requests, would you just go ahead and fill heaven with the fragrance of your thanksgiving? Those are the kinds of people God would most delight to receive in His presence.
“Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ…” (2 Corinthians 2:14). Thanking God for what we can see is only a sensible thing to do. However, thanking God for what we cannot see but are persuaded that He has done for us in Christ is an expression of faith. This should be our posture in the new covenant. We thank God for what we know He has done for us in Christ even if we have not seen the physical tangibility of it.
This season, take your thanksgiving to the next level. Rather than being under pressure to asking God to do stuff, why not convert the most part of your prayer time to thanksgiving moments? This is not only an expression of faith but a trigger for the miraculous (John 6:11-12, 11:41-44). Those who live a life of thanksgiving often experience God more than others. God does stuff for them without their asking Him. You can be one of such.
© ‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria