05/22/2012
Giving Thanks To God
Introduction
God saw you when you were in your mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13-16). He knew your mother and father and the circumstances of the home where you were to grow up. He knew the schools you would attend and the neighborhood in which you would live.
God gave you the ability to survive and walked with you through good times and bad. He gave you survival techniques and guardian angels to keep and protect you (Ps. 91:11). He chose you before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love (Eph. 1:4).
He cried with you when you cried. He laughed with you when you laughed. He was grieved when you were misunderstood and treated unfairly. He watched and waited, looking forward to the day when you would receive Jesus as your Savior. To as many as received Him gave He the power, the right, and the authority to become the sons of God (John 1:12 AMP). He longs for your fellowship, desiring for you to know Him more and more intimately.
Your survival techniques were probably different than mine. Whatever they were, and whatever your life may have been like up to this point, the peace of God can change the regrets and the wounds of the past into thanksgiving and praise. You can experience wholeness by earnestly and sincerely praying this prayer.
I.
Daily Prayer of Thanksgiving
Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit and by Your grace, I join with the heavenly host making a joyful noise to You and serving You with gladness! I come before Your presence with singing!
Lord, I know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that You are God! It is You Who made us, not we ourselves [and we are Yours]! We are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture.
Father, I enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and present an offering of thanks. I enter into Your courts with praise! I am thankful and delight to say so. I bless and affectionately praise Your name! For You are good and Your mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting. Your faithfulness and truth endure to all generations. It is a good and delightful thing to give thanks to You, O Most High.
Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, perfect the fruit of my lips. Help me draw thanksgiving forth from my innermost resources; reach down into the most secret places of my heart that I may offer significant thanksgiving to You, Father.
Thank You for my parents who gave me life. I am grateful for the victories and achievements I have experienced in spite of my hurts — the bruises and the abuses that boxed me in when I was a small child. You used them for good even though Satan intended them for my destruction.
You prepared me to listen to the inner voice — the voice of Your Holy Spirit.
Thank You for Your grace, which is teaching me to trust myself and others. Thank You for life — life in all its abundance.
It was You Who gave me a desire to pray, and I am grateful for the prayer closet where we meet, and I thank You for Your Word. Life is exciting, and I am grateful that I am alive for such a time as this.
Thank You for past and present relationships. I learn from those who oppose me and from those who are for me. You taught me to recognize and understand my strengths and weaknesses. You gave me discernment and spiritual understanding. I enter Your gates with thanksgiving in my heart.
You are my Father. I am Your child, loved by You unconditionally. I rejoice in You, Lord, and give thanks at the remembrance of Your holiness.
I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
