First of all, give thanks Part 1
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 1 Timothy 2:1-2
This week I will be posting excerpts from my book, First of All, Pray. Paul urged in 1 Timothy 2 that the people of God place prayer for others as a top priority in their lives. The giving of thanks is included in that list of “first of all” ways to pray.
Excerpt from Chapter 1:
Thanksgivings
“You may not think of thanksgiving in and of itself as a type of prayer, but it is. In fact, if you look at all the scriptures using this word, you can clearly see that thanksgiving is to be involved in everything you do. And because the plural for thanksgiving is used in 1 Timothy 2:1, you are to present unlimited thanksgivings to God.
“Philippians 4:6 states, ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God’ (emphasis added). As you pray and supplicate about the stressful situations in your life, the Bible commands you to thank God as you pray. This addresses two very important truths about living life. The first truth has to do with life’s anxieties—no one is guaranteed a charmed, easy-going life! Your life will have its share of stress and conflict. If this were not the case, you wouldn’t find so many verses in the Bible about praying when difficult times arise. If you look at the condition of our nation and your stomach starts to churn with worry, the only healthy recourse is to pray. Pretending that nothing is wrong in order to protect yourself from anxiety will not bring the power of God on the scene. God made prayer available to you during your time here on earth in great part because of the prevalence of anxiety-causing conditions.” (Excerpt taken from pages 19-20; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis; © 2013–Dorothy Frick)
In American history, the first Thanksgiving followed a time of extreme hardships for those who celebrated it. The Pilgrims left their homeland in England, and then Holland, primarily to escape religious persecution. Of the 120 passengers who set sail in 1620, only 53 were still alive for the first Thanksgiving, November, 1621.
You would think that the exposure to the elements, disease, and death which stalked the group, wiping out half of their number, would shroud the rest of them with hopelessness and despair, but despite the harsh trials, these believers chose to thank God instead. They knew how to lift up their eyes from the daunting circumstances surrounding them to fix their gaze and adoration on the Lord and Savior who had never left them without comfort. Such was the caliber of the men and women who left their homes to secure for themselves a new homeland where they could be free to worship God as they saw fit. These dear souls, by their heartfelt love of God and perseverance, blazed a trail that the rest of us privileged to live here could follow.
You, also, may be facing extreme difficulty in your life. Our nation, itself, is suffering under escalating levels of discord, disillusionment, and despair. Despite all that is going on around you, though, the witness of that little band of Pilgrims and their native guests has stood firm throughout the centuries ever since. Here is their message to you, alive in 2013:
Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks, and do not cease to give thanks. Do not ask your circumstances, your body, your bank account, or the daily news if you should give thanks to God; give thanks, and when you are finished—give thanks!
Dorothy
Read MorePutting off ’til later what you could do today
I am blessed to own a hot tub. Every year in May, I empty it, and then I scrub it out and refill it the next day. This year, I emptied it but waited a couple of weeks to clean and refill it. Big mistake.
Yesterday I armed myself with rags, wipes, sponges, bleach water, buckets, a hose, and filter cleaner. I was a bit nervous to view beneath the lid as I knew that I would see puddles of old, standing water in the various floor compartments. I was also afraid of what else I might find.
Warning: Gross Alert—what follows may disgust more squeamish readers.
Yep; half a dozen roaches and—EWWW—a dozen or more garden slugs lounged in placid contentment within the empty tub. I had to face off with each individual, nasty critter, and in my plastic gloves, I defeated the disgust-oids and rid the hot tub of its alien invaders.
Then the painstakingly tough work began. I had to carefully sanitize each square inch of the tub and under the cover. What normally takes much less than an hour took several hours.
The good news is that it is clean and free of creepy crawlies and contaminants. The lesson learned here is that I should have cleaned the tub as soon as it was emptied.
This raises the question about spiritual maintenance. When God directs you to deal with an issue in your life, do you procrastinate? Do you engage in a quick “good confession”, figuring that will hold it until you can deal with it later…and later…and later? I have, and unfortunately, these things can snowball, even to the point of—like my empty hot tub—attracting unwanted “roaches” and “slugs”.
In Chapter 6 of First of All, Pray, I wrote about the importance of dealing immediately with those things that God is targeting in your life—those things that only serve to hinder your effectiveness in prayer. If you put it off, the “contaminants” multiply. Here’s the excerpt:
“Could it be that the Lord has been speaking to you about an indiscretion, attitude, comment, or even a seemingly minor behavior in your life that you just haven’t gotten around to correcting? Don’t postpone dealing with the area which God is targeting. Why spend one more night, as Pharaoh chose to do so long ago, with the “frogs” taking up residence in your life? (See Exodus 8:8-10.) The Holy Spirit, who is kind enough to reveal these things to you (see Romans 2:4) is also powerful enough, with your cooperation, to free you from all of them as well! You repent; He provides the power to change!” (Excerpt taken from page 88; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis; © 2013–Dorothy Frick)
Such quick-to-act, tenderness of conscience has a huge impact on your prayer-effectiveness. May you be a better steward of your spiritual life than I was of my hot tub; it will surely spare you both headaches and heartbreak—and the ewww-factor!
Dorothy
Read MoreSurveillance
In light of the administration’s recent admission to collecting phone records from millions of Verizon customers (a group to which I, myself, belong), I thought I’d throw out an excerpt from Chapter Two of my book for your reading pleasure.
“In a prayer-drenched society, led by leaders covered with prayer, you and your fellow citizens abide by the law and have no need to be spied upon. Your privacy is a given because both citizens and leaders typically do what is right within a structure of fair laws with just consequences for violating the laws. In a quiet, privacy-respecting society, you have freedom to work, buy, sell, communicate, travel, and assemble without need for surveillance. As prayer decreases, however, temptation within the nation—for everyone—becomes more and more difficult to resist, and crimes of all kinds increase. Sweeping lawlessness gives rise to the idea that infringement on individual privacy in order to safeguard society at large is the only solution. This is one reason why communist governments so commonly violate the privacy of their people; they don’t trust them to do the right thing. Why not? When there is no absolute God to whom individuals are accountable then traditional values of right and wrong are meaningless, discarded along with the concept of Creator. External coercion and intimidation become the only methods to ensure order. When your right to a quiet, private life is violated on an ever-increasing scale, you can bet that prayer coverage for your nation has diminished.” (Excerpt taken from pages 46-47; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis; © 2013–Dorothy Frick)
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