A Guide To Intercessory Prayer
by Rev. Richard W. LaFountain

Step 3... Give Thanks To The Lord

Thanks giving is to be as much a part of the believers life as breathing. We are exhorted to live in thankfulness to God, and to exalt him with continual expressions of thanks regardless of our present circumstances.

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 2Thessalonians 5:18

IN PRAYER we are exhorted to give thanks profusely for the goodness of the Lord, for all his benefits, for his mercy, for his faithfulness, for his stedfast love, for loads of blessings.

Psalm 100 is an excellent guide for entering the presence of God.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless His name."

It was Israel's ingratitude of heart, the murmuring, the complaining, the grumbling, that brought on the wrath of God. It was not that God had not blessed. He had over and over again! It is that men soon forget the goodness of the Lord. We are quick to forget his answers to our prayers, His mercies in our troubles, His healings when we are sick, His forgiveness when we fail, His provisions in our need. Well did the psalmist groan in Psalm 107:

"O Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good...Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"

The Psalms are filled with expressions of thanks to God on every side. Oh, may our lives, our lips, be continual psalms of thanksgiving!

Hebrews 13:15 points out that thanksgiving is a sacrifice to God. A sacrifice of our lips, that is to be offered up to God continually. Wouldn't prayer be wonderfully transformed if we would offer 10 sacrifices of thanksgiving for every request we make of God.

GOOD MENTAL HEALTH is begins with a thankful attitude of heart. "A merry heart does good like medicine...He that has a merry heart has a continual feast." Proverbs 15:13 / 17:22

DEPRESSION is the inability to see the goodness of God around you. David frequently expressed his depression, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13 The eyes of faith SEE the goodness of God even in the midst of adversity. Gods purposes, plan, and provisions are always good! Romans 8:28/ Jeremiah 29:11

Psalm 68:19 "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits..."

James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."