Prayer Thoughts

Have you ever thought about your prayer language? No, I am not talking about speaking English or some other language, I am talking about how we bring our requests before God. Is your prayer a shopping list of requests, are you saying Dear Lord, I pray that you will help me to walk according to Your word, I ask that you will... I request... I ... Do you get where I am going with this?

How are we to approach God, with praise and thanksgiving. It is easy to pray with all our requests, but what is the answer to those requests. It is very hard to do, I have prayed more times then I can count and it becomes like a habit to pray with the question and not the answer. Change comes hard, but pray with the answer and allow God to do the rest. Let me explain a little more on that, because I can see that it could be taken like I am telling God what to do and that is not what I am saying.

Dear Lord, I thank you for today, I thank you for the life you have given me, I thank you for loving me even when I do not feel like I can love myself, thank you for showing me through your grace that I can except me right where you have me, I praise your name oh Lord and I thank you for giving me the wisdom to handle my son today and even when I want to not respond because I feel like he is rejecting me out, thank you that I am reminded about your Grace father and I thank you for that. Thank you for providing a girlfriend that loves You and I thank you for continuing to establish yourself in her life, thank you that she loves me Lord, thank you for bringing her into my life to help me walk closer to you. Thank you for giving me peace Lord to handle the hard places that I come to, thank you for continuing to show me your love and faithfulness. Lord I failed to stand tall, but I thank you for the hard place that you brought me to and showed me how I need to just trust in you even in my weakness you remind me that You Oh Lord are strong. Thank you for never leaving me and being with me even when I was struggling to focus on you, You are right there, thank you for the storms because I am able to sink my roots into you, into your word deeper despite the weather...

It no longer is a prayer of a list of requests, but a prayer thanking Him for even the areas in which it is easy to ask for, but much harder to say thank you Lord for His grace. In all circumstances give thanks. It is changing how you approach the Thrown of God that could make the change that you are looking for. God is faithful and His way is better then our ways.

We are to trust and believe, have faith even in the uncertainty of life, that God will provide a way. How are you praying? Are you asking God for a way, or thanking Him for the way He is providing? He is faithful to provide, what if instead of asking Him to provide, you thank Him for the provisions He has brought you, thank Him for what He has given you and just be thankful in all things. Do you think that your views will change? I believe they will, because I know that I still struggle in not asking, but thanking God. Be thankful doesn't always come easy, but being thankful helps me to focus on what God is doing and less on what I want Him to do.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Psalm 107:1 "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 118:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Colossians 1:3 "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,"

1 Timothy 4:4-5 "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."