Prayers of thanksgiving

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray continually, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

I have a friend who says she writes all her prayer requests down to make sure that, when they are fulfilled, she will remember them and be thankful. Sounded funny to me at first then I thought about the daily small blessings that were forgotten prayers.

I once traveled cross country to care for a sick friend. While there I was gifted with an opportunity to encourage a new minister as he began his new walk. When I returned home and shared this experience with my friend, she reminded me that I had prayed for an expansion in my work for the Lord.  She also reminded me that the other side of the country was quite an expansion.

More recently I prayed that the Lord bless my latter years with the gift of being an encouragement and help to others. Within a week a young woman whom I had known most of her life called and told me that she had been stuck in attempts to journal and perhaps start a blog and had received encouragement from my efforts.

I find the safest and most rewarding thing for me is a continuous state of gratitude for all of my blessings, great and small, seen and hidden.

I appreciate sunsets and rainbows. I am grateful for steadfast friends. I sing praises for the love and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I rejoice always!

I pray that your heart will be filled with the wonderous joy of a personal relationship with Our Father. I pray that you are able to ¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray continually, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

May God Forever Be a Blessing in Your Life!