If we are going to achieve the dreams that God has for us, a prayer life that is filled with gratitude is essential. I find nothing changes my gratitude than prayers of gratitude. I was reminded of this by my ducks that are outside our kitchen door. Yes, I wrote about turkeys and being anchored and now ducks that remind me of prayer. Farm nerd alert.
The ducks are hilarious waddling around, remove slugs, and provide us with eggs for baking. A win, win. There is a couple things about ducks that I didn’t know before I got them. One is they are all kinds of messy, but that’s nothing a little wood chips can’t fix. However, there is one thing that can be really tiring that can teach us all a few things.
I wake up before sunrise and my routine is to start coffee and have some set aside time to pray, read, and study with God. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Nevertheless that has been changed with the introduction of the ducks.
Isn’t it amazing when ducks fly way up in the sky and we can hear them quacking to each other? What a cool sight and sound when walking in nature they look like specs and are chatting away. It’s the sound of the fall and spring migration. When you put ducks twenty yards from your home it’s not such a majestic sound of the change of seasons. It sounds more like a mac truck.
Every time I move in the house these quackers go bonkers letting me know they are ready for their day’s meal. It is so noisy, I’m worried they will wake up my kids. So many mornings I wander out there in the dark to give them their meal just to shut them up. Their cuteness is keeping them off the dinner table for now.
What ticks me off is I have fed them every morning and evening. They have never went hungry or thirsty and yet won’t shut up about their “lack.”
Prayer life with gratitude matters
I can be like those ducks. I talk to God like He is going to forget to care for me and my dreams. My lack of trust shows in my lousy attitude. I have missed out on blessings in front of me because I’m too busy making sure God knows I need something. QUACK! How about you? Are you tempted to gripe and complain instead of being filled with gratitude and hope?
Prayer life that is filled with gratitude matters and not just because we are trying to avoid being roasted duck. And yes I’m thinking about cooking up the quack attack. We are not trying to annoy God less. He doesn’t view us like I view the quacken. The heart of prayers of gratitude is to see what God is doing and to open our eyes to opportunity. It is also to have vision to see others and a heart that is connected to God.
Prayers of Gratitude helps us see what God is already doing
When we come to our Father in Heaven with grumbly spirits, we are blind to the good things in our lives. Bringing our problems to God is a great thing; He wants to hear your heart. However, when all we do is complain to God, that is no longer a healthy conversation but a skewed perspective. I tend to see problems which is great for restoring, but it can lead me into a depressive mindset. Spending time in prayer telling God what I’m grateful for turns my grumble into praise. He has done so much in my life no matter how bad my circumstances have been. I’m sure the same thing is true for your life as well. Gratitude allows us to see what He is doing.
Prayers of Gratitude Opens us to opportunity
All too often we are closed off to the opportunities around us. When we grumble and complain we fixate on what we don’t have. Just like complaining and grumbling blinds us to what God is doing in our lives, it also causes us to not see where He may be leading us. When we focus on what we don’t have, we focus on scarcity instead of having a vision of abundance. Gratitude changes our gaze from what God hasn’t done (yet) to what He has done and with that perspective we will be able to see the abundant opportunity around us.
Helping others
When we have a grumbly heart we become very self-centered. Our thoughts become about nothing but our problems or in my ducks’ case, their food. Our dreams and visions are important, however, when it becomes an all consuming pout session, we miss the hurting people around us. Dreams that honor God give Him the glory and are about helping other people. Prayers of gratitude focus us on others and serving them. If you want to learn more about God honoring dreams, there is this book.
Connection with God
Prayer at it’s roots is connecting us in relationship to the Savior of the world. Gratitude connects our hearts to Him, instead of connecting to our problems. Similarly how gratitude focuses us on the people around us, gratitude also focuses on God and His goodness. Bringing our problems to God is important. When it’s all of the time though, it’s like treating God more like a genie in a bottle than our Heavenly Father. Thank God for what He is doing in your life, thank Him in advance for what He will do.
Go to God in prayer of gratitude and your circumstances will not change overnight, however, your perspective will change. Eyes of faith will be open; eyes to see what God has done and will do. When we have hearts overflowing with gratitude we focus on relationship with God and others instead of ourselves. In time, perspective change will change and our focus on relationships will change our lives.
How does prayer of gratitude change you?
Good post. Thank you for your prayers for my eyes