Living thankfully

Several Christian writers have helped me see the endless possibilities for thanking God.

Most Christians know that God deserves thanks.  Above all, followers of God should thank him for bringing us into his family and assuring us of an eternal relationship with him.

Having an "attitude of gratitude", as one television preacher calls it, is good for our own emotional and spiritual well-being, too.

But, I confess that I sometimes run out of specific things to show my gratitude to the Lord.

Is giving thanks important to God?

Yes, indeed.  In Luke 17, we read that Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one returned to thank him.  

Jesus remarked: "Didn't I heal 10 men?  Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"

So I should be thankful.  But for what?

The short answer is - everything.

I can think of one category immediately - personal blessings.  I can thank the Lord for my wife and children and grandchildren.  I can thank him for good health.  I can thank him for a comfortable life.  And I could go on along this line for a while.

John R. Bisagno, author of The Power of Positive Praying, divides personal blessings into physical and spiritual blessings.

He says we should not forget God's physical blessings that we take for granted - such as being able to walk, talk, eat normally, think, see.  We should remember that some people can't do these things.  And even if we have physical problems, we should be thankful for the physical abilities we still have.

Bisagno goes on to mention other things we should be thankful for - our homes, our possessions, our furniture, our cars, the food we have.

Then, of course, there are the spiritual blessings we have each received.  

"Thank him for Himself, for His Son - for His life, death and resurrection.  Thank Him for your own personal experiences with Him, your own salvation. Thank Him for the Spirit of God who led you to Him and the person He used."

Thank God for his leadership in your life, his joy and his peace.

Bisagno goes on to suggest thanking him for the churches we belong to - the church staff, the pastor, the volunteers, the people we know.

Then, we can thank the Lord for all the blessings we share with others - the sunshine, the beauties of creation.  And we can even thank him for things that many would not consider blessings - rain and snow and great heat.  Because each has its own value in creation.

Another writer, Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts, kept a list of things such as the sun shining on a field at the end of the day.  She treasured these everyday things - and important family things - and wrote them down.

She says it changed her.  She became more content and joyful.

Being thankful pleases God - and does us a world of good.

 

David's secret

David, shepherd boy and king, teaches me the secret of real prayer and praise.

The secret? God is everything and I am nothing without the Lord.

Typical of David's thoughts is this passage in Psalm 20:  "Some nations boast in their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God."

The name of God means the character of God - who he is.

David complained to God when things were going badly for him.  And he was sometimes depressed.  But he was filled with underlying trust in the Lord, even in the bad times.

For instance, in Psalm 43:5, David fights his depression with these words: "Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again - my Saviour and my God!"

David sought God's guidance even in the midst of battle preparations. 

In 2 Samuel 5, David and his followers are cornered by the Philistines in the Valley of Rephaim and David turns to the Lord for direction on how to fight them.  God tells him not to attack them head-on but to circle around behind the enemy and wait for the sound of marching feet in the trees before attacking.  He does and wins a battle against superior numbers.

Psalm 27 expresses David's heart.  He says he will not be afraid even though he is surrounded by the enemy because God is with him.

And then he declares: "The one thing I ask of the Lord - the thing I seek most - is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord's perfections and meditating in his temple."

In 1 Samuel 13, Samuel tells King Saul that God has already chosen a leader to replace him - a man after God's own heart.  That man was David.

Why was he man after God's own heart?  Because David's heart sought God's heart and was willing to do whatever God asked him to do - even when everything seemed stacked against him.

I realize that I depend a lot on my own plans.  And I want some glory for myself.

David knew who deserved the glory - it was his Lord.

David went off the rails in his life - particularly when he lusted after Bathsheba, another man's wife.  He arranged for the death of Bathsheba's husband and married Bathsheba.

But he repented when his sin was pointed out by the prophet Nathan.

There is sometimes a cost to worshiping God and doing what he asks us to do.  The prophet Jeremiah was persecuted when he warned the people that judgement awaited them if they persisted in turning away from the Lord.  But Jeremiah's prophecies and his example have had an eternal impact.

Like David, the apostle Paul considered all his accomplishments worthless "compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

That's the spirit of praise and prayer that truly touches God's heart.

Praying boldly

Great prayer warriors pray boldly.

But do you have to be superhuman to pray with confidence?

No, says Derek Prince.  You just have to follow the guidelines for prayer in the Bible.

In Hebrews 4:16, we are told: "Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

This applies to everyone - to you and me, just as much as to great Christians that we admire.  It's a guarantee that God will deal with our deepest needs when we need his mercy and help.

I must say that I am more tentative in my prayers than I should be. 

In his book Secrets of Prayer, Prince says that we can be confident our prayers will be answered so long as we are praying for what God wants and are in right relationship with the Lord.

The author, whose life was bathed in prayer, declares boldly: "For my part, I love to pray - and what is more, I get what I pray for."

That's a strong claim.  But Prince makes a thorough case, based on the Bible and his long experience in prayer.  His careful approach reflects his academic training at Cambridge University before the Second World War.  He died in 2003 at the age of 88.

The bedrock of prayer must be willingness to do what God wants us to do - no matter what, he says.

Here is a rough digest of Prince's thoughts on answered prayer:

• We must seek his will - not our will - through reading the scriptures, noting especially God's promises to believers.  Praying scripture is very effective;
• We must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in prayer;
• We must pray with the right motives;
• We must pray with faith.  Faith is trusting what the Bible tells us about the character and reliability of God;
• We must forgive those who hurt us;
• We must pray in the name of Jesus.  We come before God based on what Jesus has done for us on the cross; who he is as the Son of God; and the relationship we have with Christ; and
• We must pray with confidence, looking to God and not the problems we face.  And we must confess whatever sins we have and then accept that God has forgiven us and move forward.

"You will never pray a higher or more effective prayer than when, guided by the Holy Spirit, you go to the Word, find the promise that relates to you and your situation and say, 'Lord, you said it; You do it it,'" the author says.  "If you do this, having met the previous conditions for prayer, you will discover the secret of effective praying."

Bold and encouraging words.

Mary's prayer

I am filled with awe and admiration whenever I think of the young girl Mary's words when she is told by the angel Gabriel that she will give birth to the son of God.

She is initially troubled because she is a virgin, but Gabriel assures her the birth will be miraculous.

And she responds: "I am the Lord's servant.  May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1)

What trust and faith in God!

I consider her words a prayer of acceptance and faith.  She believed God was honouring her by choosing her to bear Jesus (Luke 1:47-49).

But it was not an easy choice for her.

Even Joseph, her husband-to-be, thought she had done something wrong - pregnant before marriage - and was thinking of divorcing her quietly.  But an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and explained the miraculous conception.

There is no doubt that Gabriel's appearance must have been amazing.  But Moses tried to get out of leading the Israelites even though God spoke to him from a burning bush.  And Gideon tested God several times when an angel told him he was to lead the Israelites.

Yet Mary - a humble young woman - accepted her role immediately.

It is that kind of faith that God is looking for in me.  Am I willing to do what he asks me to do?  Am I prepared to say to the Lord  "Your will be done" no matter what the cost may seem to be?

Derek Prince, author of Secrets of a Prayer Warrior, says that submission to God's will is essential in seeing prayers answered.

Prince declares that he gets what he prays for.  He points to great prayer promises in the Bible available to all of us.  He has experienced personally marvellous answers to prayer.

But there are conditions.  And the first is "come with reverent submission" to the Lord.

Hebrews 5:7 says Jesus' prayers on earth were heard because of his reverent submission to the Father.

Jesus displayed this virtue most vividly in the Garden of Gethsemane when he sweat drops of blood while pleading with the Father to spare him death on the cross.  But he surrendered himself entirely to the destiny chosen for him, saying: "Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." (Matthew 26:39)

This may seem fatalistic.  But Prince doesn't see it that way.

"When we pray for anything, we need to begin by asking ourselves, Am I praying for this thing because I want it, or because God wants it?  It makes a great deal of difference.  If it is because I want it, my prayers may not be answered; but if it is because God wants it, then my prayers will be answered."

George Muller was a great example of seeking God's will in a situation and then praying confidently until he saw the answer.  He kept a diary of his requests and God's answers for decades while he operated orphanages in England without ever asking people for money.

On significant matters, he would pray for the Holy Spirit to guide him as he read scriptures and placed his requests before God.  When he was convinced of God's will in a situation, he knew he would receive a "Yes" in response.

"When we say, 'Your will be done,' we are becoming instruments for God to do what he wants," Prince says.

And nothing is more powerful than that.

Think of it.  When Mary said "Yes" to God, she gave birth to the Messiah.

And the world was changed.

Let's be blessers

A family changed dramatically when the parents started blessing their children rather than criticizing them.

Kerry Kirkwood, author of The Power of Blessing, says the parents were at their wits' end because their teenaged children were rebelling "and their family was on the verge of falling apart".

They had told counsellors how bad their children were but saw no change in the behaviour of their offspring.

Then, they heard about blessing and they took a different approach.

"They began to replace angry words and expressions of disappointment with words of love and blessing - a difficult transition," Kirkwood says.

The family was transformed as attitudes changed, the children's schoolwork improved and "peace came to their house".  In fact, the children wrote their parents a letter expressing love for their father and mother.

A godly blessing is a form of prayer.  For instance, if we know someone is struggling with fear, we can pray something like: "May you know in your heart that God is with you and that he loves you.  May he give you his strength and wisdom as you face your problem. May he fill you with his joy and peace."

We pray the blessing based on what we know about God's character and what he wants for his people, springing from what we read in the scriptures.

Blessings are important to God.  Jesus spoke a series of blessings called "the beatitudes" in his great sermon in Matthew 5.  He even urges us to bless those who persecute us.

The story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 shows that there is power spiritually in speaking blessings and curses.

Balak, king of Moab, tries to get Balaam, a noted prophet, to call down a curse on the Israelites who are pouring into the region as they escape Egypt. Balak believes that a curse by the prophet will stop the Israelites and force them out.

But God stops Balaam from pronouncing a curse, saying that he has already blessed the Israelites.  In the end, Balaam bows before God and pronounces a blessing - not a curse - over the Israelites.

In our world, we may be unconsciously saying hurtful things about people, not realizing that there is a spiritual aspect to our words.  If we bless people, we can break the spiritual effect of negative words.

"Blessing is prophetic because it is able to see the way things should be, not the way they appear at the moment," says Kirkwood.

For me, that is an important insight. 

So, when I feel upset with someone, I must remember that God loves that person and wants the best for him or her.

God is asking me to offer a blessing, drawing on what God wants for his children.

If you are interested in more on blessing, Bill Gothard's Institute of Basic Life Principles gives helpful suggestions at https://iblp.org/questions/what-power-spoken-blessing.

Breaking bitter bonds

A decade ago, I realized I had never forgiven a boy who ridiculed me - a new kid - outside our grade 8 classroom with all the other boys watching.

Compared to what others have faced, it seems trivial to me now.  But it affected me for the rest of my high school days, causing me to withdraw from the other boys.

So, I decided to forgive him - and others - as part of a church study group on healing prayer.  Nothing spectacular happened, but it was important for me to jettison this bitter burden.

Forgiveness is hard, but unforgiveness can be crippling.  It can affect our spiritual lives and sometimes our physical and emotional lives.

Christ calls on us to forgive others, drawing a direct link between our relationship with God and our willingness to forgive (Matthew 6:14-15).  Failure to forgive does not mean we are separated from God, but I believe it means we have ourselves created an obstacle in our relationship with the Lord.

I have read stories of dramatic healings - emotional and physical - when people have forgiven others.  It can even transform families.

In her book When You Don't Know What To Pray, Linda Evans Shepherd tells how forgiveness brought a large family into the kingdom of God.

The family of 10 children suffered through violence and alcoholism as they grew up.

Then, one of them - Victoria - became a believer.  The rest ignored her spiritual change and she died from cancer not too long afterwards.  She deeply desired for the rest of her family to become followers of Christ.

A little later, one of her sisters - Marie - became a Christian and started praying for her parents and all of her brothers and sisters.  While she was praying, she would recall hurts she had suffered at the hands of these family members.

"Each time that happened, Marie asked God to help her forgive that hurt," Shepherd writes.

This took years.  As she prayed for each family member, she gradually forgave each for past hurts.

When she had finished this process, she invited the whole family to dinner at a restaurant.  She was surprised when all of them came.

Then, she invited them all to come to a church meeting where the preacher presented the good news of Jesus Christ.  All but one came that evening and committed their lives to Jesus.

Of course, there is no guarantee that forgiving someone will lead to such wonderful results.

But Jesus knew what he was talking about when he urged us to forgive.

When we forgive others, we are doing what God has done for us.

Do you exist?

A surefire way to find out whether God exists is to ask him, says Anthony DeStephano.

God is sure to answer "Yes" - in some way, says DeStephano, author of Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To.

Of course, you have to really want to know.  If you have already decided he doesn't exist, you'll probably miss his answer.

DeStephano wrote his book to assure us that we can be certain the Lord will say "Yes" to prayers that align with God's own wishes and plans.

He acknowledges that there are many prayers God says "No" to.

"Like a good father, he is not concerned about gratifying our every wish.  Instead, he is concerned about only one thing: our ultimate good, which boils down to whether or not we make it to heaven."

So every prayer we make is evaluated according to that long-term goal.  He says "yes or no based on what he knows will happen to us in the future as a result of that decision".

Yet we can be sure that God wants to say "Yes" to prayers that will lead to "certain spiritual favours and graces that are always good for us and that we need all the time".

One of these, of course, is faith.

We can spend a lot of time exploring arguments about God's existence, but that will not lead to faith.  Faith is a gift of God.

Faith in God - in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for us - is the stepping stone to a whole new life with boundless hope and possibility.  It answers questions like "What will happen after I die?" and "Why do I exist?"

Sometimes, too, believers have intellectual doubts and need confirmation that God is real.

Getting tied up in philosophical arguments about God's existence won't get us far.  That's because God is alive and all we have to do is ask him.  He will show us.

DeStephano says it's highly unlikely that he will suddenly appear before us and speak to us.  Although, he has sent angels supernaturally to speak to people in the Bible and even in modern times.

Instead, God is looking for us to trust him when he is invisible as a keystone to a growing faith.

"Very simply, God will give you a sign of his presence - a real, genuine, bona fide sign," the author writes. "The exact nature of this sign will be up to him, of course . . .  But you can be sure that it will be something out of the ordinary."

By "out of the ordinary", DeStephano says it may be profound or as simple as a conversation with someone that the Lord impresses on your heart as something from God.

Perhaps it is escaping a close call with death without a scratch.  Or, an unexpected solution to a problem that you could not have predicted.  Or, conquering a personal evil in your life.

"There will be a growing conviction in your mind and in your heart that there must have been some other force at work.  And more important, there will be a growing conviction of the presence of this force."

The Bible makes clear that prayer is important simply because God wants a close relationship with us.  He loves us and wants to help us.

We just have to ask the right questions and keep our eyes and ears open for the answers.