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[HOW TO PRAY, by R. A. Torrey]
CHAPTER VIII
PRAYING WITH THANKSGIVING
There are two words often overlooked in the lesson about
prayer which Paul gives us in Phil. 4:6,7, "In nothing be anxious;
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts
in Christ Jesus." (R.V.) The two important words often overlooked
are, "WITH THANKSGIVING."
In approaching God to ask for new blessings, we should never
forget to return thanks for blessings already granted. If any one of
us would stop and think how many of the prayers which we have offered
to God have been answered, and how seldom we have gone back to God to
return thanks for the answers thus given, I am sure we would be
overwhelmed with confusion. We should be just as definite in
returning thanks as we are in prayer. We come to God with most
specific petitions, but when we return thanks to Him, our
thanksgiving is indefinite and general.
Doubtless one reason why so many of our prayers lack power is
because we have neglected to return thanks for blessings already
received. If any one were to constantly come to us asking help from
us, and should never say "Thank you" for the help thus given, we
would soon tire of helping one so ungrateful. Indeed, regard for the
one we were helping would hold us back from encouraging such rank
ingratitude. Doubtless our heavenly Father out of a wise regard for
our highest welfare oftentimes refuses to answer petitions that we
send up to Him in order that we may be brought to a sense of our
ingratitude and taught to be thankful.
God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness and ingratitude of
which so many of us are guilty. When Jesus healed the ten lepers and
only one came back to give Him thanks, in wonderment and pain He
exclaimed,
"Were not the ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" (Luke
17:17, R.V.)
How often must He look down upon us in sadness at our
forgetfulness of His repeated blessings, and His frequent answer to
our prayers.
Returning thanks for blessings already received increases our
faith and enables us to approach God with new boldness and new
assurance. Doubtless the reason so many have so little faith when
they pray, is because they take so little time to meditate upon and
thank God for blessings already received. As one meditates upon the
answers to prayers already granted, faith waxes bolder and bolder,
and we come to feel in the very depths of our souls that there is
nothing too hard for the Lord. As we reflect upon the wondrous
goodness of God toward us on the one hand, and upon the other hand
upon the little thought and strength and time that we ever put into
thanksgiving, we may well humble ourselves before God and confess our
sin.
The mighty men of prayer in the Bible, and the mighty men of
prayer throughout the ages of the church's history have been men who
were much given to thanksgiving and praise. David was a mighty man
of prayer, and how his Psalms abound with thanksgiving and praise.
The apostles were mighty men of prayer; of them we read that "they
were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Paul was
a mighty man of prayer, and how often in his epistles he bursts out
in definite thanksgiving to God for definite blessings and definite
answers to prayers. Jesus is our model in prayer as in everything
else. We find in the study of His life that His manner of returning
thanks at the simplest meal was so noticeable that two of His
disciples recognized Him by this after His resurrection.
Thanksgiving is one of the inevitable results of being filled
with the Holy Spirit and one who does not learn "in everything to
give thanks" cannot continue to pray in the Spirit. If we would
learn to pray with power we would do well to let these two words sink
deep into our hearts: "WITH THANKSGIVING."
