A Prayer About Giving Thanks When Life’s Hard
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Lord Jesus, how I praise you that we don’t have to fake, stuff, or spin anything. The gospel puts an end to many things, including posing and pretending. That’s why the call to perpetual joy, prayer and thankfulness doesn’t mock my sensibilities and stoke my irritability.
In fact these very words, this trio of commands, were written by a man who had every right in the world to question your goodness, doubt your promises and struggle with your providences (2 Corinthians 11:16-33). So who is better positioned, who can be more trusted than Paul to deliver such a call, your call, on this Thanksgiving eve?
So, Lord Jesus, my prayer today is for all of my friends and family members for whom life is very hard right now, and the call to thanks giving is more difficult than usual. I pray for the chronic sufferers I know and love-those for whom life feels like a never-ending experience of either physical, emotional or mental pain. I see the weariness… I feel the restlessness… I understand the frustrations and their cry, “How long, O Lord?”
Lord Jesus, may your joy be their strength, for they have very little. May your prayer life be their encouragement, for theirs is nearly non-existent. May your thankfulness before the Father be mediated to their hearts, when it would be easier for them to curse than to praise, to disbelieve than to believe, to run away rather than run to you.
Lord Jesus, I also pray for those for whom the greatest pain right now is relational. Marriages and families which are in breakdown and meltdown… those for whom Thanksgiving will be spent at a table set for one… friendships broken by sin, strained by disagreement, weakened by neglect… Lord Jesus, come in power, kindness, and redeeming and transforming love. So very Amen, I pray, with thanksgiving, in your merciful and mighty name.