Say prayers of thanksgiving

I arrive early at church every morning to spend 45 minutes to an hour in prayer and Bible study. I arrive early to avoid the interruptions of the day: ringing phones, email, drop in visits, worship preparation, hospital and shut in visits, meetings, crises and so on. I find that if I do not start the day in prayer and study I feel out of kilter the remainder of the day.

I use various aids during my morning devotions besides the Bible. I use different orders of service, lists of prayers, and thoughtful suggestions by others. One day, one of my lists of suggestions recommended making all my prayers for the day prayers of thanksgiving. It suggested attempting to go the whole day without asking for anything, just give thanks. It sounded like a wonderful idea. But, do you know how hard that is? Just try it! I usually include the giving of thanks along with my petitions, but a whole day of thanks? That is tough! We constantly ask for something: healing for an ailing friend, patience to deal with a problem, strength for living, our daily bread, relief from a burden and forgiveness. There are 1,001 things. A day full of thanksgiving reframes our prayers and leads us to count our blessings, the greatest of which are faith, life and forgiveness in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Next month we celebrate Thanksgiving, a national holiday, not a religious holiday.

However, it has been my experience that this is one of the poorest attended worship services of the year. This year, before we head to grandma's house why don't we head over to God's house and say thank you? Maybe if we did it more often it would not be so tough.