Yesterday in staff meeting at school, we focused on Thanksgiving by using our prayer time to simply give thanks to God. To thank Him for all of the specific blessings in our lives and the amazing ways He's acted and continues to act in our lives. As we did this, coming to Him SOLELY for the purpose of thanks, requests and supplications naturally came out in the process. For example, when we thanked Him for the mighty ways He's acted in our lives the past we asked Him to continue to work out His good plans and purposes for our lives. When we thanked Him for blessing our relationships here at HOPAC, we asked Him to continue to bless our relationships here.
And it brings me back to the verse I quoted in my last entry:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which *transcends all understanding*, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7
What if we changed our process, attitude, "method" of prayer? What if we came to Him each time with the PURPOSE of Thanksgiving..... and then out of that let our supplications flow? Would this not fulfill this verse and leave us with His peace which is promised to TRANSCEND UNDERSTANDING? What more could we want? Eternal, lasting peace that is promised to defy earthly comprehension... a peace that isn't even capable of being explained in earthly terms. It can be easy to leave that portion of the verse out- the "with thanksgiving" part.... but isn't that the key?
No comments:
Post a Comment