Gratitude Invites God’s Presence

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Echoes of Truth

February 11th

Theme: Gratitude Invites God’s Presence

Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer; it is almost essentially connected to it. One who always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or pain, both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity – John Wesley  

Anyone who is a grumbler, complainer, murmurer, can never always pray without ceasing. They pray yes, but because their prayers lack life, they rarely find themselves entering that space. The territory of prayer automatically is meant to call down God’s presence. 

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There is no way to enter God’s presence order than through the gate of thanksgiving and the courts of praise(Psalm 100:4). If there is anyone who prays, check the content of their prayers, thanksgiving is certainly a major ingredient in it. 

There is the need to understand that true satisfaction in the place of prayer and the life of prayer is laid in recognising that God had and still has authority over every aspect of your life’s realities. Hence, this propels into submitting to His sovereign power through thankful acknowledgement.

When our prayers are often characteristic of requests and what God has to offer us, we end up leaving that posture drained and that atmosphere brings no joy. Prayer is meant to usher us into God’s presence and a quick vehicle to getting there is thanksgiving, a grateful heart. The absence of this is to have no experience of joy (Psalm 16:11) and we can never be strengthened (Nehemiah 8:10) for life’s daily challenges. 

If you have been in the habit of excluding thanksgiving to God in the place of prayer for the significant and insignificant things, check it, most of your prayers have certainly stayed unanswered. You certainly have doubt lurking in a corner of your heart and you certainly find it difficult to increase faith on certain matters you offer to God in prayer.

If you have been struggling to experience the presence of God with you when you enter that spiritual space of praying, check it, your heart has created little to no space for thanksgiving, other selfish matters have taken up the bulk of space.

What will you try differently from today? How will your attitude towards expressing gratitude to God change? Let intentional thanksgiving soar first then other things can come afterward. 

Listen to this short audio on finding joy in Christ Jesus through Saying Thank You: https://elisabethelliot.org/resource-library/gateway-to-joy/gratitude-saying-thank-you/

Let Us Pray:

Abba Father, thank You for revealing the truth to us, thank You for exposing another layer of prevailing prayers, we bless Your name for Your faithfulness. We ask for mercy in all the ways we’ve been transactional and unthankful in all our prayers. Forgive us Lord for being shallow minded and unyielding to You. We pray Lord that from today, You’ll take us deeper in communion with You. Let thanksgiving no longer be a checklist in our prayers but the heart of our prayers. Thank You Jesus for there will be a change, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.