Start with Thankfulness
In the first chapter of Romans, we see an extremely sobering statement about what happens when we don’t glorify God and aren’t thankful for what He has given us:
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” – Rom 1:21-25
When we forget to remember God as the source of all things and the source of our salvation through His grace, we ultimately are desperately unthankful. We start idolizing ourselves and the vain things around us. We start following the lies of the world.
It is not a surprise then when we see thankfulness as such an important part of prayer in the Bible.
Thankfulness is a necessary ingredient to a fruitful life in Christ (Col 3:17, 1Th 5:17-18, 1Ti 2:1). No matter what happens in our lives, we can always be thankful for what Christ has done for us through His death and resurrection.
The realization of our sinful nature (humility) reorients our hearts to be thankful for what we don’t deserve through Christ’s abundant grace and allows us to walk in charity (Col 3:12-15, Php 2:3-8, 1Co 13:4-7).
Another important aspect of thankfulness to God is not just what He has done for you, but what He has done for others in the Body! In our selfish flesh, we don’t like to think about other people. But there are numerous examples in the Bible expressing how important it is to pray for others.
In Colossians and Ephesians, Paul recounts his continual prayer for them and the first thing he expresses is his thankfulness to God for them (Col 1:3-4, Eph 1:15-16). It’s a nearly identical pattern in both passages, which should tell us the importance of it.
Paul hears of their faith in Christ and their love for other saints
He thanks God for them in his prayers continually
He then exhorts and edifies them through the epistle he writes to them
This is the beauty of fellowship with other believers because as we hear the work of God in them, we can praise and thank God for them in prayer, and then we grow in our desire to continue to edify those saints.
Try praying continually for those in your life and see what happens! You might even find yourself growing in mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, and charity toward them! (Col 3:14)
