Prayer - Thanksgiving

1 Timothy 4:4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

This text seems quite counter-cultural by today’s standards. Being thankful for that which delights us is quite natural. But what about that which goes against the grain and is contrary to our likes.

Here, Paul writing to Timothy, encourages us to consider every thing as a gift created by God as good. Perhaps its a question of receiving things correctly when we receive them as the gifts they are—with thanksgiving—rather as though they were our rights.

One writer but this in context by saying, “There are three requisites to the proper enjoyment of earthly blessings: a thankful reflection, on the goodness of the giver; a deep sense of our own unworthiness; and a recollection of the uncertainty of our long possessing them. The first will make us grateful; the second, humble; and the third, moderate.”

Or as C S Lewis puts it, “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good, if bad, because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country." 

Loving Lord,
As I express my gratitude to you in prayer, may it be a pleasing, joyful sound to you. 

Thank you, Lord, for your love. 

It brings me acceptance and significance.
Thank you, Lord, for your truth. 

It brings me guidance and direction.
Thank you, Lord, for your mercy. 

It brings me help and comfort.
Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. 

It brings me stability and strength.
Thank you, Lord, 

for your beauty displayed in the earth. 

It brings me joy and delight.
Thank you, Lord, for your way of redemption - 

the cross. It brings me salvation and regeneration. Amen