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Give thanks for all of your blessings

I heard a story of a little boy who was having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother’s house.

Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.

“Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer,” said his mother.

“I don’t need to,” the boy replied.

“Of course, you do”, his mother insisted. “We always say a prayer before eating at our house.”

“That’s at our house”, Johnny explained. “But this is Grandma’s house, and she knows how to cook.”

* * *

Paul has a word to us about prayer in the Bible: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NRSV).

Those are challenging words. They get to the heart of what prayer is. One kind of prayer comes out of desperation, when we are in trouble and need something. “Please God, I need . . . ,” we begin, and plead with God. Perhaps it is a school child’s cry for help for a test, or it’s a life or death crises. We are lacking, and we cry out for help.

But prayer is not just for the times of desperation. If we takes Paul’s admonition to pray without ceasing seriously, we find ourselves praying in times of blessing. We give thanks for good things, for the wonderful food that loved ones have prepared. Prayer is not just about what we lack, but also for the blessings that we have.

That’s an attitude adjustment. If all you think about is what you lack, you will be unhappy. If you think about the things that you have, you live a life of joy and gratitude.

I remember the first international trip I took. I joined three friends, and we traveled first to Florida and spent a day at Disney World. It’s an idyllic wonderland, not connected with reality.

Then we flew to Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti. The sights, sounds, and odors of the poorest place in the Western Hemisphere were overwhelming. I realized that in world terms, I was rich, because I could eat every day and not be concerned about hunger and my daily needs. In that place we found a little church that spent a large part of their prayer time thanking God for their blessings! That shamed me, because I took all of my blessings for granted!

More than anything else, it seems to me that prayer isn’t so much a thing we do, as a relationship with the God who loved us so much that he sent His son Jesus to heal us and bring us home to Him. So we pray, even at Grandma’s house.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Pastor Tom Hyde

First United Methodist Church

 

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