The longer I live, the more I come to appreciate that gratitude is the key to mental and spiritual health. It’s the necessary prerequisite for submission to God’s will for us.
He has given me all that I need, and I have learned to stop asking and start praising more. The hindsight that comes with age has shown time and again that what I have most desired has not been what would have been best for me. Praise and thanksgiving are the highest forms of prayer.
Here is a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving that I found this evening:
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
Amen! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Amen, Amen! It is so true – gratitude and having a grateful heart keep us more focused on Jesus Christ and less on ourselves and what we don’t have, want, i.e., the material world. Gratitude focuses on the spiritual without a doubt….God Bless you and your family on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
In light of certain circumstances in my life, I find I have even more to be thankful for. He truly does protect those who love Him.