Read Psalm 9
Highlight verse: ‘I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous works.’
(Psalm 9:1 CSB)
When was the last time you thanked God for something?
Sadly, I think that, a lot of the time, we come to God with our requests and rarely our thanks.
I’m not saying that this is always the case or that we never offer our thanksgiving to the Lord, but that thanksgiving should potentially be more of a priority in our prayers than it currently is.
My friend wrote a beautiful article on this very subject – he called it ‘His Heart and His Hand’.
His premise was that we regularly seek the hand of God – for Him to move on our behalf in relationships, finances, work and the like. But we are a little slower to seek His heart.
I don’t know about you but, at the end of my days here on earth, I don’t want to stand face to face with my Creator and not know Him.
I may know Him loosely through the requests I have made and the way that He has answered them, but what about knowing Him for who He is, not just what He can do for me?
‘I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous works.’
(Psalm 9:1 CSB)
The heart of God is a mystery, yet I believe that, in close relationship, there are elements of His character and being that we can grasp and know better.
His humour.
His preferences.
His dislikes.
His love.
His heart.
Friends, as today’s Psalm encourages us to, let’s come to God every day – multiple times a day! – and thank Him for all that He has done, is doing and will do for us all.
Let’s shout from the rooftops all that He has accomplished in our lives and the lives of those around us. Let’s honour Him and bring Him glory by recognising that He too is a being that wants to be loved and recognised for who He is.
And from that place of gratitude and declaration, may we live more satisfied and fulfilled than we ever have before.
Action: In your prayer journal or on a piece of paper/whiteboard in your home, make a note of the things that you have asked God for. Now keep a separate column for when God has answered that prayer request. Finally, keep a third column for when you have returned to God and thanked Him for the way in which He has responded to you.
