As a Mercy Missionary, most of my day is spent in prayer and formation. Yes, our mission is to serve the poor and impoverished on the streets, but we can only do that if we have the strength to, and our strength is found in the Lord. So, we spend a lot of time in prayer. Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God, and creates a space in which we can interact with Him. Traditionally, most prayers can be divided into four main categories: adoration– praising God simply for His nature, or who he is; confession– seeking forgiveness from God for our sins against Him; thanksgiving– thanking Him for the blessings; and supplication– offering up petitions or intercessions. In this post, I want to focus on thanksgiving, which, unfortunately, for me has been the most overlooked form of prayer throughout my life… until now.

In the last week or so, God has been inviting me through scripture, and those I have interacted with, to spend more time in thanksgiving, and wow! I can’t believe how much I was missing out on! The Lord gives us so many gifts that we so easily overlook. Just in the last month, I have found immense healing in Him, a great deal of financial blessings, and so much more! These are just the big things. There are so many little things that God blesses us with that we hardly even see.

God desires to bless us– and He delights when we respond with thanks. Sadly, this isn’t always lived out. We don’t find ourselves seeing all the good things God has given to us. Instead, we tend to focus on the bad in our day, the little annoyances, or the setbacks. At least this is what I saw in myself, and it’s what I see among a lot of our friends on the street. However, I see a great deal of blessings and miracles among our friends too. Blessings, that a lot of the time, they don’t notice, because they are so focused on the bad.

I feel strongly that God put it on my heart to spend more time in thanksgiving, not only for the good that he has blessed me with, but also for the miracles and blessing that he has bestowed upon our friends on the street. For God deserves to be thanked, and the blessings, gifts, and miracles that he showers upon the poor are worthy of praise and thanksgiving, for they are an answer to much intercession.

So let’s give thanks! Thanksgiving pleases God. It shifts our focus from lack to abundance, and deepens our trust and love for God. I invite you, reader, to reflect on what blessings you may have overlooked today, and I challenge you to write them down and the next time you pray, offer thanksgiving to God.

“Always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”

-Ephesians 5:20

~Sebastian Kreslins

On Thanksgiving