PRAYER AND FASTING GUIDELINES: DAY THREE--GIVING THANKS TO THE LORD

Step 3... Give Thanks To The Lord

Thanksgiving is to be as much a part of the believers life as breathing. We are exhorted to live in thankfulness to God, and to exalt him with continual expressions of thanks regardless of our present circumstances.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV  (16)  Rejoice always,  (17)  pray without ceasing,  (18)  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

IN PRAYER we are exhorted to give thanks profusely for the goodness of the Lord, for all his benefits, for his mercy, for his faithfulness, for his stedfast love, for loads of blessings. Psalm 100 is an excellent guide for entering the presence of God.

Psalms 100:4 ESV  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

It was Israel's ingratitude of heart, the murmuring, the complaining, the grumbling, that brought on the wrath of God. It was not that God had not blessed. He had over and over again! It is that men soon forget the goodness of the Lord. We are quick to forget his answers to our prayers, His mercies in our troubles, His healings when we are sick, His forgiveness when we fail, His provisions in our need.

Psalms 107:1-2 ESV  Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  (2)  Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble

The Psalms are filled with expressions of thanks to God on every side. Oh, may our lives, our lips, be continual psalms of thanksgiving!

Hebrews 13:15 points out that thanksgiving is a sacrifice to God. A sacrifice of our lips, that is to be offered up to God continually. Wouldn't prayer be wonderfully transformed if we would offer 10 sacrifices of thanksgiving for every request we make of God.

Hebrews 13:15 ESV  Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

GOOD MENTAL HEALTH begins with a thankful attitude of heart.

Proverbs 15:13 ESV  A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

Proverbs 17:22 ESV  A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

DEPRESSION is the inability to see the goodness of God around you. David frequently expressed his depression, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Psalms 27:13 ESV  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

Romans 8:28 ESV  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  (12)  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  (13)  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Psalms 68:19 ESV  Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah.

James 1:17 ESV  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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