In Every Thing Give Thanks

Last night I knelt at an old fashioned altar during the mid-week prayer meeting. There were many personal burdens on my heart, and the church prayer list was pages long. There was so much that I wanted to take before God and leave at His throne.

And I couldn't pray for any of them.

The words just wouldn't come. I knew that God knew my requests, but I just couldn't wrap my thoughts around them.

Through a flood of tears, I just thanked Him.

I thanked God for my salvation, for being able to come before Him and for His promise to always listen.

I thanked Him for our home, our church and our community.

I thanked God for our Preacher, his wife and each of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I thanked Him for the blessings of the day, the blessings of the day before that I was still rejoicing over and the blessings of tomorrow that I don't even know about yet.

I thanked God for family, for answered prayer and for moving in ways that I don't even know about yet.

I could have stayed there, thanking and praising the Lord, for much longer than the prayer time lasted. To me that's a blessing in itself. So I walked back to our pew and continued to thank Him. Throughout the rest of the service I found myself thanking God for many things, each as they came to mind.

Then, during the Preacher's message, I got a tiny glimpse of being in the perfect will of God.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

The Lord already knew my requests - He just wanted to hear my thanks for what He had already done. I cried a little more and thanked Him for that personal message, too. The heart that went to the altar heavy and burdened left the church house with renewed joy and a little touch from the Holy Spirit.

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