Praise and Thanksgiving

Praise & Thanksgiving

Psalm 145:1-3 “I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king;  I will thank you forever and ever.  Every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; his greatness is beyond understanding.”

I read this and thought it was a great verse for us since one week from today is Thanksgiving.  I have probably talked about gratitude before, just as I am sure that I have talked about praising the Lord before.  This is because both keep coming up in the scripture and both are very important.  I was just talking to a friend on the phone today and she mentioned that she was talking to a family member and they had a great discussion on gratitude.  She said they talked about being thankful for this day and the sun and all the little things.  She was explaining to him how important gratitude is.

I was talking with another friend after mass this morning and she also happened to mention gratitude. She suggested picking one night of the week and having the kids think of at least one thing they can be thankful for and then talking about how important gratitude is.  There are so many benefits to gratitude and no down side.  One benefit of gratitude is that it can help you shift your mood.  You can take any circumstance that you are in, and find something in that moment to be grateful for.  No matter how bad the situation is, if you can find something to be grateful for, then it will help shift your mood.

For example, if you have lost a loved one recently, you can be grateful that you had that loved one to lose, some people don’t.  If you broke your arm, you can be thankful that you still have your arm, or that it will heal eventually.  Some people lose their arms and have to figure out how to live life without it.  Although, even in that circumstance you can be grateful that you didn’t lose more than you arm, or you can be grateful that although you lost your arm, at least you didn’t lose your life.  These are examples of how you can find something to be grateful for in any situation, even the bad ones.  

However, what about the good times.  It is important to be grateful in the good times as well.  Sometimes when things are going well we don’t take the time to stop and be grateful for it.  Why is this?  Is it that we are just too busy?  Is it that we don’t think of it?  Is it because we don’t want to jinx it?  I’m not sure why we don’t do this more, maybe it is a combination of all those reasons.  The reason why isn’t really important.  What is important is that we start doing it now.  If we want God to trust us with more, then we need to show him that we appreciate what we already have.  What can you be thankful for today?  Can you pause this episode and list 5 things that you are grateful for today?  They don’t have to be big things, it could be as simple as the changing of the leaves.  I find myself so much more grateful this time a year.  I just drive around in awe of God’s magnificent beauty and it makes me so grateful to be alive.  What makes you smile, brings you joy and makes you grateful to be alive?  Have you thanked the good Lord above for it yet?  Why not, you wouldn’t have it without Him.  

“I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king;  I will thank you forever and ever.  Every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; his greatness is beyond understanding.”  I just talked about gratitude and how we should be grateful to God for all that we have.  Now, I want to talk about praise.  This is why I read the verse to you again.  It is so beautiful.  I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king, I will thank you forever and ever.  Do you see how the two sentiments go together so nicely in this verse.  First is the praise, talking about how great the Lord is.  Then it ends with I will thank you forever and ever.  The author is taking time to stop and thank the Lord for all that He has done for him.  

Then it says, every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  Do you see how both of these things are so important to the Lord?  He wants us to thank Him every single day and also praise Him forever.  Praising the Lord can be something else that we forget to do.  We don’t usually forget to pray to the Lord when we need something, however, praising him is not something that we think to do.  What if you started adding praise into your prayers?  What if at the same time as you are asking God for something you were also telling Him how great He is?  For instance, “Dear Lord, I ask that you be with my son as he has a contest at school today.  Please help him to be calm and remember what he has learned.  Please help him to be gracious, whether he wins or not.  Lord, you are truly amazing.  You do so much for us and we are so very thankful.  I love you Lord and I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Did you see how easy praising the Lord can be?  It could be as simple as adding a line or two to the prayers you are already saying.  Another time we seem to forget to praise the Lord is after He has answered our prayers.  This may sound strange as you would think the first thing we would do when our prayers are answered is thank the Lord.  However, sometimes, we don’t realize out prayers have been answered.  Sometimes we look at good things happening and think we are lucky.  Or we know something great happened but we don’t remember it just so happens to be the exact thing that we were praying for.  It is not that we are trying to forget about God, we just don’t see the miracle He gave us.  

I have been noticing God’s miracles a lot more ever since I started to write down my prayers.  I have been making a conscious effort to write down the things I am asking God for and those that others ask me to pray for.  I write them down in a notebook and then I leave space underneath so I can go back and write notes when they have been answered.  Here are a few answered prayers:

My friends eye was healed!

A young severely depressed girl found a treatment center after being told all the beds were filled.

My friend to raise more than $20,000 for her mission cause in Haiti.  

A woman who was losing hope that her baby would ever get to come home as he was in the hospital for over a year got to take her baby home.  

Someone else’s toe was healed.

A woman who had several miscarriages was finally able to get pregnant again and have a healthy pregnancy.

A friend who was really ill with COVID and then had a blood clot and was in ICU for a while is now home with his family.

A church was starting a new UNBOUND ministry and wanted prayers for a successful ministry.  Their first session was awesome.

A friend had to have eye surgery and was very anxious.  She had a very successful surgery and was able to sleep through it all.  

A friend’s brother needed to find a new residential facility.  He was living on the other side of the state and it was hard for my friend to get to see him.  Now he is living just minutes away.  

God is so good!  He is there answering our prayers.  If you can’t see how God is working in your lives, then may I suggest you start writing down your prayers.  Keep a list of all the things you have asked God for, and then periodically look through the list and see if any have been answered.  It’s not really a if they have been answered as much as it noticing when they are answered.  Because God tells us “Ask and it will be given to you.”  He does answer our prayers, we just need to pay attention.  I believe the more you can praise the Lord and thank the Lord, the more you will be aware of His presence in your life.  I don’t think if you praise and thank the Lord He will show up more, He is already showing up.  I just think if you are praising Him and thanking Him, you will see it more.  Will you take the time to notice Him?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to praise you and thank you.  We repent for all the times that you answered our prayers and we did not thank you or praise you.  Lord we are sorry for all the times that you answered our prayers and we didn’t even recognize that you answered them.  Lord, help us notice this more.  You are so great and you always answer our prayers, help us to see this every time Lord.  We love you so much and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus, and also the walk to be more like Jesus over the past few weeks.  How are you doing with forgiving this week?  Is there someone that you just can’t seem to forgive.  A woman at a Bible study said one time that a priest told her if you can’t forgive someone, then just try to want to forgive, or even try to want to want to forgive.  We all need to start somewhere.  It doesn’t have to be all your nothing.  Baby steps.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow, have a blessed day!