“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”
COLOSSIANS 4:2 (NASB)
The room was dark and Eddie was still asleep when I found myself awake this morning (around 5am). I proceeded to scroll on my phone for 20 minutes while Eddie got up and ready for the day and after he left I crawled out of bed and went and let the kitties out of their room. I shuffled back to my bed and burrowed under the covers and attempted to go back to sleep. It evaded me and after more wasted moments I got up to start my day with washing dishes, making coffee, and finally sitting down to open my Bible.
It’s been a while, months if I’m honest, since I carved out time to intentionally and solely spend with Jesus. Time where it’s just Him & I and His word and my attempts at gleaning some wisdom from reading scripture. Today was a day where I followed the tug on my heart strings and opened the Bible Study I half-abandoned back in September. It pointed me to the above scripture and to tell you it was everything I needed to read would be an understatement. I’ve actually been finding myself doing a lot of those moment-to-moment prayers where I whisper something on my mind to Jesus in petition for a situation. I think it’s a beautiful way to stay in a “continuous mind of prayer” if you will; but one that doesn’t feel like I’m continually going to the Throne of God in reverence. I want to feel that devotion to prayer, that alertness the scripture was talking about.
I found myself, as always, drawn to the commentary of this verse and wanted to share that with you today as well:
“Have you ever grown tired of praying for something or someone? Paul says we should “devote” ourselves to prayer and be “alert” in prayer. Our persistence is an expression of our faith that God answers our prayers. Faith shouldn’t die if the answers come slowly, for the delay may be God’s way of working His will into our lives. When you feel tired of praying, know that God is present, always listening, always answering – maybe not in ways you had hoped, but in ways that He knows are best.”
My Bible study asked me this really simple but important question: Why is Thanksgiving an important part of prayer?
Well, we often go to God with our needs, wants, and in petition of others which is beautiful and needed but often leaves out the practice of Praise. Thankfulness is needed and contagious. If we focus more on it then our hearts will bend easier to gratitude. I for one could use more bending towards gratitude and less focusing on my selfishness. I know that in order to move towards those areas I need to also spend more time in devotion to prayer and time with Jesus.
Sweet friends, I know it’s been few and far between for me to write a post like this but I felt like it was time to share a little more truth and encouragement and maybe a little nudge like I needed to talk to Jesus more. I hope this encouraged you, as it did for me, and that your heart is bent more towards gratitude today.
