Sights and Insights
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 (NRSV)
At the end of each meeting of our congregational council, we have a time of prayer. Each member lifts up something that they would like to pray for this month. I then close with a prayer that includes the things that have been brought up. People come with a wide variety of things on their hearts that they wish to include in prayer. Topics range from personal concerns to global issues. It is, of course, good and right to pray for the concerns of the world, whether in our personal lives or for the sake of the planet and all who live on it. Yet this month, something different happened. Without planning or prompting, everyone pointed to joys and signs of life. The list was full of prayers of gratitude. That’s not to say that troubles were ignored or skipped over. Some were certainly included as well. Yet everyone began with joys and thanksgivings. I think all agreed that it was a powerfully uplifting way to end the meeting.
This fall our upper elementary school aged children are learning about prayer. A few weeks ago they talked about the importance of beginning prayer with thanksgiving. They learned: One of the things that we do when we pray is thank God. We start our prayers by remembering the good things that God has done, both for us and for the world. When we start our prayers with thanking God, it helps us to remember that praying is not just giving God our wish list. It is also noticing the good things that God does all around us. It is amazing what a difference it makes to start with thankfulness. It changes the whole tone of our time of prayer from being focused on what is wrong to time with the God who brings forth goodness and life.
That is not to say that we ignore needs or refrain from asking God for anything, but rather that it is done in the framework of gratitude. It helps us to find hopefulness in the midst of our prayers and to trust in God even when we recognize all of the ways that life falls short of being perfect. It is a simple difference, and yet it can reframe our whole world. It puts our requests within the context of the peace of God, as it says in Philippians. The author of that book talks about the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It seems to me that this guarding of hearts is a shield of hope against the hopelessness that can spiral in our spirits if we stare to long at the troubles of our world. By starting with thanksgiving, we see first the bits of renewal brought by Christ, and that gives us the hope that God will continue to be present and bring new life into even the most intractable of problems. In Christ, God’s grace may indeed pervade all things. Thanks be to God!