With Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving is this week, I thought I'd share a couple verses that relate to the holiday. 

Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

I remember memorizing these verses and joking with my mom about where to stop in this sentence.  We would say "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything!"  I'm not usually an anxious person, but I do need to remember that my first reaction to anything that could cause worry should not be worry, but prayer. 

I find the inclusion of "with thanksgiving" interesting in this verse.  It changes the whole attitude of the prayer.  If you are praying with thanksgiving it means that you have thought about what you have been given that is good.  You are reminded that God has cared for you before.  You are alive, you have had enough to eat, you have a relationship with God in Christ!  If he has taken care of so many things in the past, we can easily come to him in prayer with concerns now, knowing that He is able to care for them now.  That may not mean that He will necessarily answer your prayers the way you want Him to, but the answer will be what He knows is best.  You will be able to look back on the answer to that prayer in thankfulness, too. 

We shouldn't come to God with whiny complaints about what we don't have.  Not that it's bad to ask God for things.  He loves to give what is good to His children.  But the gimme attitude just shows that it's not God we love, but stuff or comfort or something else.  A thankful heart shows that we recognize that everything we are given is a gift from a loving God and that anything else we are given in addition is a mercy and we will respond with thankfulness again.