Prayer that Opens Doors: Thanks, episode 121

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here

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at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast.

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And also help and hope for your own life journey.

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So the pattern has been the same with all my grandkids.

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Whenever someone does something for a child, the parent says, what do you say?

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The correct answer, of course, is thank you.

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We humans aren't naturally grateful, and it takes years of training for us to remember to say thank you

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when someone is kind or helpful or generous to us.

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God has reserved the same reality.

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He felt it was necessary to remind us on several occasions to say thank you.

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Listen to these, verses you might be familiar with.

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In 1 Thessalonians 5, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

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Yep, that's what it says. Give thanks in all circumstances.

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Then in Philippians 4, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,

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by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

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What was that? Every situation. Pray. Ask. With thanksgiving.

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And then in Ephesians 5, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Seriously, he wants us to give thanks about everything, always, all the time?

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Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

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Last week when we looked at prayer that opens doors, praise, we had the same response.

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How can we be praising God all the time?

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And how can we be thanking God in every circumstance?

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As with children, practice really helps.

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And the will to practice, to make it a habit, to grow a truly grateful heart,

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is not so hard when we like the circumstances of our lives.

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Yeah, I can be thankful then.

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When we're healthy, have a good job, delight in loving relationships, have happy children,

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feel accepted and loved when we're experiencing success, when we receive a desired surprise,

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all these are easy to say thank you for.

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The key is to remember to do it, to remember who is the giver of all good things, and to express our gratitude.

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But when health is threatened, a job is lost, a relationship is broken,

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children are making destructive choices, loneliness and rejection abound,

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success is elusive, and all surprises are not desired ones.

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How can we say thank you?

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But God asks us to.

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These truths help to motivate me.

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The first, giving thanks acknowledges that he is God and he is good.

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When life's circumstances are challenging and yet I say thank you, Lord,

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I am saying to my heavenly Father, I know you are God.

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I am recognizing that you are El Elyon, the Most High God, and that you are El Shaddai, the Almighty.

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You are sovereign and over all and in control.

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But when life seems unfair or painful, confusing, scary, it is also important to realize,

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to remember that he is God and he is good.

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Just look at these assurances of God's goodness.

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In Jeremiah 32, he says, I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

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Because God is saying this about his people, his children.

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I will never, never stop doing good for them.

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I will inspire them to fear me so that they will never turn away from me.

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I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

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This was said to wandering people who didn't know what the next thing that was going to happen was.

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In Psalm 34, taste and see that the Lord is good.

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Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

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And in Psalm 86, you, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.

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I love that. He's saying God is doing good.

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He's forgiving and he's good and he's abounding.

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He's pouring out abundant love and goodness on us.

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In Psalm 100, for the Lord is good and his love endures forever.

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His faithfulness continues through all generations.

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And in Psalm 119, just in case you hadn't caught the picture that God is good,

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the psalmist says, you are good, Lord, and what you do is good.

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Teach me your decrees.

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And in Psalm 145, the Lord is good to all.

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He has compassion on all he has made.

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I love that because he knows how weak I am and how easily I fail

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and how I'm not always grateful and praising him.

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And he has compassion on us.

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He's made us and he knows, he tells us in Psalm 103 that he remembers that we are dust.

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And even though he's promised us goodness and everything we need,

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he's also compassionate that we are weak.

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So giving thanks not only acknowledges that we understand that God is God and God is good,

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but it also expresses our trust in God.

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It's saying more than just being obedient.

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It's saying, God, I trust you even though I don't like or understand what's going on.

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As we increasingly experience God's godness and his goodness,

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we find our hearts and minds are more and more able to trust him.

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Fear of all the uncertainties and concerns in our life erodes our trust.

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We find it harder to believe that God loves us and wants good for us.

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Learning to say thank you even amidst pain and loss restores our trust.

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God can go forward with confidence that we know who holds the future

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and that he knows, he cares, and he is able in every situation.

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Giving thanks also opens the door.

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So we're looking at prayer that opens doors, praise, this time thanks,

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and it opens the doors for God to work.

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I found that when hard circumstances restrain my gratitude,

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it is so I am holding tightly to the key to my heart and the key to my circumstances.

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But when I thank God, even when I don't feel very thankful,

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it is like I hand him the key that locked the door and it will enable him to unlock it.

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With that thank you key, he opens my eyes to begin to see the good he is doing,

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small though it may appear at first.

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He opens my mind to accept that his goodness will prevail over time, if not immediately.

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We know about that when we have a prodigal.

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And that key opens my heart to restore trust that will recognize

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that this all-powerful God is truly acting in love and compassion for me.

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When our son joined our family at almost 10 years old,

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life had dealt him some pretty hard blows.

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Gratitude was not in him.

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We worked hard to teach him gratitude in general and especially toward God,

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even in hard times.

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Slowly, thanks became part of his vocabulary and even began to reside in his heart.

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For many years he worked doing landscaping and once while trimming a hedge by a fence

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with a chainsaw, the chainsaw hit the fence, kicked back and hit him in the forehead,

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barely missing his eyes and leaving a nasty gash.

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When I got to the hospital and asked how he was, he said,

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it hurts a lot, maybe more colorfully he said that.

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The first thing I did, he said, was call 911.

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The next thing I did was say thank you, Lord.

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God has done a good work in him.

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That wasn't an easy thank you.

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This past year, since my husband left for heaven,

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has revealed that I am better able to give thanks in everything

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than I would have thought possible.

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Even as he had left before our eyes, my children and his brother,

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I turned to them, put my arms around them and prayed,

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thank you, Lord.

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And I named the many things that I was thankful for.

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And throughout this year, in the midst of missing him, of many tears,

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thank you, Lord, has come from my lips over and over.

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In ways I don't fully understand, saying thank you begins to open doors.

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It's as if those words said in hesitant trust give God that key

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to us, to our hearts and minds.

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And with that key, he unlocks doors that are shut by our pain,

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our anger, our fear, our resistance.

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We begin to get glimpses of answers to our prayers,

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of more steps forward than backward, of new attitudes,

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and occasionally of outright transformation when it comes to our lives

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with our prodigals.

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So my encouragement to you this Thanksgiving season is to do just that,

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to give thanks.

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In fact, I would encourage you to every day this month and the days ahead

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that you would take time to write down at least one thing you're thankful for

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and seek to consciously be aware when something disappoints you

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or causes pain or hurt or anger, that you stop and say thank you, Lord.

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I trust you to bring good in this situation.

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But if one is all you can manage, one thing to say thank you for,

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God will gladly receive that and still begin that transforming work

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in your heart and mind.

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And may your Thanksgiving this year, with or without your loved wanderer,

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reflect your trust in God's love and goodness for you and your prodigal.

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God bless you.