‘With Thanksgiving’

Daily Devotional–Wednesday, July 7, 2021

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6, NLT)

I’ve got to admit it. This morning I’m struggling with the ‘with thanksgiving’ of this verse. Not in the truth of it, but in the day-to-day practice of it. It’s easy to speak of not being anxious, until you find yourself in a situation that causes you to be anxious. Presenting our requests to God in prayer and petition also come quite naturally for most of us, but ‘with thanksgiving?’ Not so natural.

It’s too easy to point fingers or to present our prayers and petitions with utter frustration, then to do so with thankfulness. So, where is this thanksgiving to stem from? Certainly not from me in my sinful state. Pondering on this, I think that the thanksgiving comes from the fact that we have experienced God’s past answers to our prayers, to the knowledge that He possesses all understanding and power to bring about a solution, but maybe most importantly, from the recognition that it isn’t mine to worry about. There are times in life that I simply do not have control over a situation. God reminds me in His word that the solution is not to become anxious, but to be thankful, knowing that He is at work setting my path in order.

So, in my attempt not to stress about something that is out of my control, I will let go of my desire to work out a solution and place the whole mess into God’s Hands. I will pray for His divine wisdom for all involved. I will pray against the enemy who I know loves to make big messes out of what can begin as relatively small challenges. And I will pray with thanksgiving, knowing that God’s got this, I have placed it in His Hands, and I can fully trust Him for the outcome.
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For anyone else who may have needed this reminder today, know that you’re not alone. We’re all human. We all struggle. But we have a loving heavenly Father who is more than capable of sorting things out…when we let go!
~ Pastor Jane