Thanksgiving as Prayer

Philippians 4:6

Introduction

I have spent a lot of time in seminary. I have read a lot of books on theology and the Bible. I have been to many conferences and have heard from some excellent speakers and preachers. As helpful as all of that has been, I do not think there has been anything near as influential on my spiritual life as becoming a parent. Our oldest child will be twenty-four years old in just a couple of months. Our youngest will be seventeen in that same month. This has been an adventure in so many ways. 

What becoming a parent has been like for me in understanding my relationship with God is like when I put eyeglasses on for the first time. Is that really what the world is like? This is especially true when it comes to prayer. I thought I had a pretty good handle on prayer beforehand but this experience has changed my idea. Please note: I am NOT saying you need to be a parent to understand God or prayer. I am only speaking of my experience.

One aspect of this is when a child comes to us and expresses thanksgiving. I do not mean because it is a special holiday and they are expected to say something nice. Nor am I talking about when we give them something they have wanted and they are thankful. Although that is nice as well. 

There are time when my children will just spontaneously express thankfulness for things we do. I will admit that it usually takes me off guard and I am not sure what to say. It also makes me realize that I did not thank my parents enough for all they did for me. Sure, I would thank them in the moment when they did something generous, but I rarely thanked them in a more general way for all that they had done. I also notice that when they do this, it deepens our relationship.

While I do not want to push this analogy too far when it comes to our relationship with God, there are some similarities. God does not have the same emotional needs as human parents do. But there is something to be learned from this.

We have been looking at prayer through the ACTS model. We have looked at adoration and confession. Now we come to thanksgiving. I am going to say something radical. We are supposed to be thankful outside of just one special holiday in October. In fact, the Bible says a lot about being thankful and this practice is essential to the Christian life.

Praying With Thanksgiving

The passage by Paul in Philippians is one that I have returned to over and over. It has much to say about how our faith intersects with everyday life, especially life when it is complicated. There is one thing that I do want to make clear about here. When Paul says “Do not worry about anything” or as some translations have it, “Do not be anxious,” he is not talking about clinical anxiety. Nor is Paul saying that anxiety is a sin.

Paul is writing to a church in Phillipi, a church that was undergoing some stress. Things were difficult. When Paul tells them not to worry, he knows very well that they are going to worry. Have you ever been able to stop someone from worrying by simply telling them to stop? Paul himself, in his letters tells us that he would worry about the people in the churches. Jesus also seemed to experience a certain level of anxiety in Gethsemane, the night before the crucifixion. 

What Paul is saying is that there is no reason for us to be overcome with the normal worry and anxiety that a normal life, even a stressful normal life, brings. We have other options.

This will not surprise you as we are in the midst of a series on prayer, that one of the resources we have in the midst of suffering is that of prayer.

Paul tells us to pray with supplication. Supplication is the “S” that we are going to look at next week. But instead of just praying for God to give something or solve something, Paul includes the concept of thanksgiving. Why? There are actually different ideas about this.

I have known Christians who thank God for answering their prayer even before the prayer has been answered. It is used as a demonstration of faith and confidence that God will answer their prayer the way they want. I do not think that is very biblical and it can put the person being prayed for in an awkward position if the prayer is not answered the way they want.

Another way to think about this is that thanksgiving is a way of “encouraging” God to grant your request. Have you ever had a child come up to you and say some very nice things and you know immediately that they are saying it to butter you up for what they are about to ask? We need to remember that God cannot be bribed with flattery. Our thanking of God is not going to make it more likely that our prayers will be answered the way we want.

So how does being thankful even benefit us? Obviously God has the right to expect something of us even it does not benefit us but Paul acts as if thanksgiving is part of the cure for excessive worrying. The truth is that thanksgiving does have a direct benefit to us. According to the American Heart Association: “Research has shown that that the practice of gratitude is associated with many positive effects in a person’s physical and mental health. Expressing gratitude can improve sleep, mood and immunity, and can decrease depression, anxiety, chronic pain and disease.” 

How does this work for Christians? Our thankfulness is about resting in the knowledge that God has provided for us in the past. It is not the ignoring of the bad but the lifting up of the good. Without knowing for sure what will happen tomorrow, we can thank God for what God did yesterday.

Putting It Into Practice

Someone asked me how thanksgiving differs from adoration. That is a great question as our prayer of adoration had a lot of “thank you”s in it. There certainly is an overlap but there is a distinction as well. Adoration is thanking God for who God is and thanksgiving is thanking God for what he has done. So we might adore God for being love and we will thank God for specific ways that God has demonstrated that love. But these two, as with all of ACTS are linked closely together.

How do we put this into practice? I could ask you to sit down at a computer or a pen and paper and spend two hours writing down all of the things that you are thankful for and then composing that into a formal prayer of thanksgiving. It would most likely be a good exercise but perhaps is not likely to happen.

People have tried different things. I have known people who keep prayer journals and as those prayers are answered, they check off that item in their journal. You can see how that might be encouraging, looking back over the things that have happened.

I have shared previously what my practice is. One is that I write one “Good News” item every week, something that I am thankful for, and I share it. It used to be a daily item but is now weekly. The other thing I try to do is say a “Thanks God” when something good happens. I do not spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly God was involved in the specific event. The point is simply to develop an attitude of gratitude.

There are other things you can do. One might be just being intentional that whenever you pray, that you thank God for something. It will become a habit. It could also be taking some time at the very end of the day to visualize one good thing that happened that day. I will say from experience that there are days when that is difficult. I have at times been only able to come up with the fact that I am still alive and can struggle with the exercise.

One of the goals of all of this, however you put it into practice, is to bring about a shift in attitude. It is very easy to focus completely on what is missing, what has been lost, the pain that is experienced, the sadness that is felt, the ways that you wish things were different. None of those thoughts and feelings are bad. They are what make us human. But, especially as people of faith, they do not have to be our full story. God has been active in our life, we have been blessed, we have good things, there are people around us. Thankfulness helps us not to ignore the bad but to see the bad in its proper perspective.

Conclusion

Just a couple of verses after the passage that we have been looking at, Paul says this: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8) One of the things that is included in these categories is thankfulness. When we pray prayers of thanksgiving, however that might look for us, we are remembering what God has done, whether in that moment or in that day or throughout our life. We are not buttering up God in order to get a better outcome in the future. We are resting in the knowledge that God has been with us yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This will help us, not just spiritually but mentally and physically as well. Victor Hugo once said “Be grateful in your own hearts. That suffices. Thanksgiving has wings, and flies to its right destination.” That is a good reminder. Our thanksgiving does not have to be formal prayers. The point is to include thankfulness in our lives and that gratitude will rise to God as a prayer.