Are You Guilty of Not Expressing 

Your Gratitude to the Lord?

 

It’s been a very busy past few weeks for our family, and there have been so many things I’ve needed to bring before the Lord in prayer. Day after day, new prayer requests have been added to my mental list and often it’s been a struggle to recall them all when I stop to pray. Some of them have been life-changing, huge, insurmountable prayers and others have been small and possibly unimportant in the scheme of things, but still something that’s been on my heart or mind.

I began thinking recently about my heart’s response to God’s answers to prayer. Am I truly thankful? Do I make a conscious effort to take time out of my day to thank God for what he has done and for the answers he has given? Does the gratitude that flows out of my mouth match the prayers that I lift up before the Lord? Or is there a great gulf between the two, so that the scales are precariously unbalanced?

In the past few weeks, there have been many answers to prayer, some large and some seemingly insignificant, but they’ve all been important enough for me to bring before the Lord. So, if they’re important enough for me to spend the time praying about them, then aren’t they significant enough for me to lift my heart in praise and worship and thankfulness to God when he gives the answers?

Often, I find myself praying hard for something, only to forget to give God thanks when he answers. I’m excited for the answered prayer, maybe even thankful in my heart, but I neglect to let praise flow from my lips, whether out loud or even just a prayer of thankfulness in my heart and mind.

God answers my prayer and I skip along, content with the blessing, forgetting all about thanking the blesser himself!

Taking time to praise the Lord in prayer is just as important as the asking. Maybe even more so. There are numerous verses in scripture on giving thanks.

Psalm 106:1 KJV - Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Ephesians 5:20 KJV - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Psalm 9:1 KJV - I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

There is so much in the Bible on the subject of praise and thanksgiving. The words thanks and thanksgiving are mentioned just over 100 times alone, not to mention praise and praises. So, I think it’s safe to say that God sees thankfulness as something important and something we need to put into practice in our lives.

Do you know that the more you choose gratitude, the easier it gets? The more you express thankfulness, the more you notice things to be thankful for. The thankfulness muscle, for want of a better term, gets better with exercise!

If you spend a certain amount of time each day recalling God’s answers to prayer, noting them down and verbally thanking him, the more you will want to do it, then the easier it will become and the more you will have to be thankful for. As you begin to thank him for the big things, you will begin to notice the small things that you often take for granted, like a sunny day, a cloud passing overhead to give you shade, a bird song when you’re feeling sad, a warm cup of coffee on a winter’s day, a text from a friend just at the right time and so on.

I have felt convicted in recent days of my neglect in praising God in prayer. I have brought my many wants and needs to him, but I haven’t been so generous with my words of gratitude.

Despite my lack of praise, he continues to bless and provide. He loves me unconditionally and he keeps filling my cup to overflowing, but I have a lot more exercising of the thankfulness muscle to do. I would like gratitude to flow from my heart and mouth just as easily as the asking does. I would love for it to become second nature to me. Prayer and praise. Prayer and praise. Hand in hand.

Lord, forgive me for my unthankful spirit and my lack of gratitude. Help me to be made so aware of your answers to prayer that I can’t help but praise you for your goodness to me. Let my prayers of worship outnumber my prayers of asking.

Please Lord, “let the gratitude that flows out my life, 

be as abounding as the grace that flows into my life.”

 

1 Chronicles 16:34

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.