Skip to main content

Thanksgiving - a wake up call on prayer

Friends. Since "D" day, if you will, I have been pretty rotten. It's like that day hit and I fell into a valley. Which doesn't really make any sense because up to that point I had been pursued by God like I have never been before. What happened? I happened. I don't think He stopped, I think my stubborn heart, which wants stupid things, got in the way of me noticing. Oswald Chambers would probably call me a "spiritual prig" for my thoughts, because he calls us all that, quite frequently! :)

(note - this is a long post, if you want the short version - just scroll to the bottom!)

But it's Thanksgiving, which could NOT come at a better time! Do you want to get out of a funk? Count your blessings. And then tell God about those blessings! My favorite song from my favorite Christmas movie has these lyrics: "If you're worried and you can't sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep. Then you'll fall asleep counting your blessings." If you don't know what that is from, you have homework!

In the middle of a pity party yesterday - where I was envisioning a very different type of post than the one I'm actually writing - I heard this on the radio: God wants to be praised.

Well there you have it. I haven't been doing that. Counting my blessings OR praising! For the past week and a half I've been praying - a lot. For others and those silly desires of my heart...but that praise component wasn't there. Actually, a lot wasn't there. I've just been presenting my requests to the Lord. I was missing three other important things.

1) Adoration. Praising the Lord in prayer is important. It helps get our hearts in the right place TO pray because it gets us thinking about how amazing our God is. God is God.

2) Thanksgiving. This gets us thinking about those blessing we have already received. And when we are focused on that, I think we're a little more in tune with the Holy Spirit and actually ready to PRAY. God is good.

3) Confession. A simple, "Lord, I confess....Forgive me and help me to..." (that's from The Passionate Mom by Susan Merrill - as are these 4 steps). I am not perfect. I'm not even great! And since God can't look at the non-holy, I need to get my heart in gear BEFORE sending my "God's - to-do-list" to Him. And to do that I need to realize that God is good at being God. And I am NOT God. So I need to confess all those things I was trying to control that I'm not SUPPOSED to be trying to control and let Him do this job. :)

And after these three things, then it's time for that "to-do-list," which may look differently after I've praised and thanked and confessed. I certainly hope it looks different anyway; because I think putting those three steps before the requests means I'm putting the person I'm praying TO, over the person praying.

I seem to have a theme today that I can't take credit for. It's from Lysa TerKeurst's book Uninvited. God is God. God is good. God is good at being God. Those three things are completely true. Always. No matter how I "feel" or what debbie downer thoughts are swimming through my head. And those three things must be remembered, and be part of my prayer life.

For quick reference, and for those who don't want to read this whole thing, this part will stand out:

When praying do four things:
1) Praise the Lord ---God is God
2) Thanks ---God is Good
3) Confession ---God is good at being God...and I am not
4) Requests - THEN you get specific about the people who need help. Yourself included :)

There you have it. On this Thanksgiving I am thankful for a God who has reminded me how to pray. And a God who is God. And oh, so good. And oh, so good at being that God!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I love you Lord (Psalm 100:2)

Scripture of the Day: Psalm 100:2  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Starting last fall, my husband began singing the song "I Love you Lord," to our kiddo before he went to bed, as a lullaby of sorts. The lyrics are simple: I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, oh my soul rejoice! Take joy, my King, in what you hear, may it be a sweet, sweet, sound in your ear. It has since become a very popular song in our house! We sing it before nap time, bed time, and I hum it when sometimes when our little guy is upset or over tired. I love singing it slow and asking him to sing with me – at this point he knows most of the words and there is really nothing sweeter than hearing that little voice sing “I yuv you yord,”  (no “r’s” yet you see)! The song has also worked it's way into my personal worship of the Lord. The words are meant for Him to hear and I think he loves to hear them sung! I find that singing that j...
2 comments
Read more

What is Your Lie?

By now, you should know I like songs. I like Christian songs because their words don't put any "yuck" in my head and I don't have to worry about what little ears are taking in when they are on! Some touch me deep and here are the lyrics to part of a new favorite: Reckless Love by Cory Asbury There's no shadow you won't light up, Mountain you won't climb up Coming after me... There's no wall you won't kick down, Lie you won't tear down, Coming after me... Friends. Focus on that last point: There's no lie God won't tear down. What is your lie? What lie, or even lies, do you believe about yourself? What lies run over and over in your head until they don't feel like lies anymore? What hurts have you told yourself you deserve? What unkindness have you accepted as your due? What actions have you justified for others? What fault have you accepted that really isn't yours? What forgiveness have you felt unworthy of? I'm...
1 comment
Read more

From the mouth's of babes

I'm writing this more for prosperity's sake and because I need to try and wrap my head around a conversation I just had with my seven year old. Mandisa's song "Bleed the Same" was playing in the car...my kiddo asks me what she is actually saying because he hears "We all be the same." I explained how it meant that regardless of skin color, or lots of other things really, we all bleed the same. On the inside, we are all the same. And then the zinger. He says, "We all look the same inside. Except our hearts." "Oh really?" Says I. "Yes," says he "because of sin. I'm talking on a spiritual level." AAAHHHHH!!! Our hearts all look different because of sin in the my mind of my baby. And I bet you that in the eyes of God, who can see the heart in a different light and who judges it's motivations, our hearts all DO look different. When I think of a heart full of sin, I think of black and decay instead o...
1 comment
Read more