Prayer Keys - Thanksgiving
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Philippians 4:6.
Rudyard Kipling was one of the few writers of his day who had opportunity to enjoy his success while he lived. One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, “Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word. Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, “Really, I wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached into his pocket, pulled out a one hundred dollar bill, gave it to Kipling, and said, “Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words.” Kipling looked at the hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it, folded it up, put it in his pocket, and said, “Thanks.” It’s true, ‘Thanks’ is a hundred dollar word. It’s a word we probably don’t say often enough. and being thankful is an attitude we probably don’t have enough. [sermoncentral.com]
One year, the Peanuts comic strip had Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day. It was just his usual dog food in his usual bowl. Snoopy looked at the dog food and thought, “This isn’t fair. The rest of the world is eating turkey with all the trimmings and all I get is dog food. Because I’m a dog, all I get is dog food.” He stared at his dog food for a moment and thought, “I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey.”
Several housewives wrote what they were especially thankful for. The list included...
“For teenagers because they give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.
“For Smoke alarms because they let you know when the turkey’s done.
“For children who put away their things and clean up after themselves. They’re such a joy you hate to see them go home to their own parents.” [sermoncentral.com]
When preaching on Philippians 4:6, many preachers emphasize the “do not be anxious for anything,” and the “present your requests to God.” They emphasize the peace of God in 4:7. These things should be emphasized. It seems, however, that “with thanksgiving” is not emphasized enough. Of 214 sermons from Philippians 4:6-7 listed on sermoncentral.com, only thirteen listed thanksgiving as a topic and only one listed gratitude.
We all have something to be thankful for. Throughout his letters, Paul practiced thanksgiving. He thanked God for the churches to whom he was writing in Romans 1:8, 1 Corinthians 1:4, Ephesians 1:15-16, Philippians 1:3, Colosians 1:3, and 1 Thessalonians 1:2
He thanked Jesus Christ for putting him into the ministry in 1 Timothy 1:12. He thanked God for Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:3 and for Philemon in Philemon 1:4. He thanked God for deliverance from sin in Romans 7:25. He thanked God for victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15:57.
Paul’s example of being specific in offering thanks is a good example for us. We are often very specific in our requests but very general in our thanks. We offer many requests and then we offer a “Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings.” Like Paul, we should be specific in our thanks for blessings already granted.
Over hundred years ago, R. A. Torrey wrote, “Returning thanks for blessings already received increases our faith and enables us to approach God with new boldness and new assurance. Doubtless the reason so many have so little faith when they pray is because they take so little time to meditate upon and thank God for blessings already received. As one meditates on the answer to prayers already granted, faith waxes bolder and bolder, and we come to feel in the very depths of our souls that there is nothing too hard for the Lord. As we reflect upon the wondrous goodness of God toward us on the one hand, and upon the other hand upon little thought and strength and time that we ever put into thanksgiving, we may well humble ourselves before God and confess our sin.” (How to Pray, p. 26)
Thanksgiving increases our faith and boldness, which we have also studied as prayer keys. Awareness of our need to give thanks increases our humility and encourages confession, two more prayer keys we have studied. Prayer keys are not isolated things. They all work together as we abide in Christ.
As we said when studying praise, there is a difference between giving thanks IN all things and giving thanks FOR all things. Some bad situations, like the fleas in Corrie Ten Boom’s barracks, are part of God’s providence [see the sermoncentral.com sermon, Prayer Keys - Delight in the Lord]. Some bad situations, like rape or losing a child in an accident with a drunk driver, are the results of man’s sin. This is a fallen world. Our reason for being thankful is not to be found in the nature of our circumstances. Rather, our reason for being thankful is to be found in the nature of our God.
Paul mentions being unthankful in 2 Timothy 3:2 as a sign of the end times. He mentions it in Romans 1:21 as a characteristic of ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. “For although they knew God,” Paul writes of humanity, “they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened,” Romans 1:21. From there, he describes how things just got worse and worse and worse, so that in the end, he can only describe humankind as “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (1:31). It all begins with ungratefulness.
Psalms 92:1 says it is good to give thanks to God.
Three thousand years later, psychology is learning what the Bible says is true. For most of its history, it seems like psychology has focused on what is wrong with man. In recent years, a branch of positive psychology has developed. Researchers tell us that sincere gratitude, not love, but sincere gratitude, is the healthiest of all emotions. Gratitude actually increases our immunities - it makes us more resistant to stress and less susceptible to illness.
Dr. Nick Stinnett of the University of Nebraska conducted a group of studies called the “Family Strengths Research Project”
Dr. Stinnett and his researchers identified six qualities that make for strong families. The first quality and one of the most important to be found in strong families was the quality of appreciation. Families that are strong are strong in part, Dr. Stinnett concludes, because family members express to each other their appreciation for what the other members DO and for who they ARE.
Hans Selye, considered the father of stress studies, has said that gratitude produces more positive emotional energy than any other attitude in life.
In her book, “Thank You Power,” Deborah Norville says...
“Here's a laundry list of the study's conclusions about test subjects who were consciously grateful:
“They felt better about their lives as a whole. They were more optimistic. They were more energetic. They were more enthusiastic. They were more determined. They were more interested. They were more joyful. They felt stronger about handling challenges. They exercised more (nearly an hour and a half more per week). They had fewer illnesses. They got more sleep. They made progress toward important personal goals. They were more likely to have helped someone else. They were perceived by others as more generous and helpful. They were less envious of those with more possessions.
“Related studies have found additional benefits, all of which could arguably be linked to a grateful mind-set:
“Clearer thinking - more creativity and openness to ideas. Better resilience during tough times. Higher immune response. Less likelihood of being plagued by stress. Longer lives. Closer family ties. Greater religiousness.”
Those are just a few of the benefits she listed.
Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of wealthy persons; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.
Dr. Jeffrey Froh and colleagues surveyed 1,035 high-school students and found that the most grateful had more friends and higher GPAs, while the most materialistic had lower grades, higher levels of envy and less satisfaction with life. “One of the best cures for materialism is to make somebody grateful for what they have,” says Dr. Froh.
Much of the research on gratitude has looked at associations, not cause-and-effect relationships; it's possible that people who are happy, healthy and successful simply have more to be grateful for. But in a landmark study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003, Dr. Emmons and University of Miami psychologist Michael McCullough showed that counting blessings can actually make people feel better.
The researchers randomly divided more than 100 undergraduates into three groups. One group was asked to list five things they were grateful for during the past week for 10 consecutive weeks. The second group listed five things that annoyed them each week and the third group simply listed five events that had occurred. They also completed detailed questionnaires about their physical and mental health before, during and after.
Those who listed blessings each week had fewer health complaints, exercised more regularly and felt better about their lives in general than the other two groups.
Drs. Froh and Emmons conducted a similar study with 221 sixth- and seventh-graders from Candlewood Middle School in Dix Hills, New York, an affluent area on Long Island. Although the effects weren't as dramatic as with the adults, the students in the gratitude group did report a higher level of satisfaction with school and more optimism than the students who listed irritations, according to the study in the Journal of School Psychology in 2008.
All three groups had hassles and good things and ordinary things but only the group that made it a point to be grateful saw their lives in favorable terms. They had fewer negative physical symptoms like headaches and colds. They were more active and outgoing. They simply enjoyed a higher quality of life.
For older children and adults, one simple way to cultivate gratitude is to literally count your blessings. Keep a journal and regularly record whatever you are grateful for that day. Be specific. Listing “my friends, my school, my dog” day after day means that “gratitude fatigue” has set in, Dr. Froh says. Writing “my dog licked my face when I was sad” keeps it fresher. Some people do this on their Facebook or MySpace pages, or in one of dozens of online gratitude groups. There's an iPod app for gratitude journaling, too. The real benefit comes in changing how you experience the world. Look for things to be grateful for, and you'll start seeing them everywhere.
Dennis Prager, author of “Happiness is a Serious Problem,” states: “There is a ’secret to happiness, and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people to becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”
Again, psychology is learning what the Bible has said for three thousand years. Dennis Prager writes that complaining leads people to become unhappy. Psalms 77:3 says, “I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.”
“If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep,” Dr. Emmons advises in “Thanks!” his book on gratitude research.
Now I am going to make a leap to a conclusion that I can’t prove, but seems reasonable. If God designed us in such a way that being grateful to people makes us happier, healthier, and more optimistic, surely gratitude to God will make us happier, healthier, and more optimistic. Surely being optimistic when we pray will enhance our faith and our boldness. Now that I think about it, it sounds like that earlier quote from R. A. Torrey, “Returning thanks for blessings already received increases our faith and enables us to approach God with new boldness and new assurance.... As one meditates on the answer to prayers already granted, faith waxes bolder and bolder, and we come to feel in the very depths of our souls that there is nothing too hard for the Lord.”
In English, the word “thank” means to “express gratitude or appreciation.” However, there is no Hebrew word with this meaning. Rather, the Hebrew word yadah means literally “to make public acknowledgment.” In the Hebrew mindset, it was never enough to thank God quietly or privately. In the mindset of Psalm 100, true thankfulness cannot be kept quiet.
Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and said, “I was a medical missionary for many years in India. and I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured.”
But this missionary had developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him and he performed his operation, and they would leave realizing that they would have become blind, but now they were going to be able to see for the rest of their lives.
The missionary told Allen that they never said, “Thank you,” because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, “I will tell your name.” Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it. [sermoncentral.com]
While on a short-term mission trip, Pastor Jack Hinton from New Bern, North Carolina, was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. There was time for one more song, so he asked if anyone had a request. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.
“It was the most hideous face I had ever seen,” Hinton said. “The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. The disease had destroyed her lips as well. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing “Count Your Many Blessings?’ “
Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, “Jack, I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.” “Yes, I will,” he replied, “but I’ll never sing it the same way.” [sermoncentral.com]
