Thanksgiving
January 7, 2012Why Pray?
Prayer is the most important spiritual activity and discipline. Prayer however is hugely misunderstood. Most people understand prayer only to be asking God to help them in times of need. This is not 100% wrong, but is definitely not 100% complete. This will then bring us to a point where we view God as only limited to someone who can be approached when things go bad.
Prayer should be seen as a daily activity that is as important as eating food. Not eating food, or eating unhealthy food will cause malfunction in your body. In the same way, a lack of prayer or an unhealthy prayer life will cause your faith to malfunction. Just like any relationship needs time together to make the relationship stronger, prayer will cause you to get closer to God and strengthen your faith.Prayer is also the way that we “bring things from the unseen to the seen”. God is Spirit and He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). While we are living on the earth, these blessings mean very little to us if they remain in the spiritual realm. Prayer however is the way we “access” these promises of God and make them manifest in our physical life.
What is prayer?
Prayer has two main aspects. Although these two are not exhaustive in this teaching, nor exhaustive on the teaching of prayer, they are very important to understand.
First, prayer is mostly worship and thanksgiving. When we learn to give thanks to God in spite of all the circumstances we face, we will be filled with faith James 1:2-3. In thanksgiving we will see God’s goodness and His faithfulness. When we focus on God’s goodness is worship and thanksgiving, we will look past the problems and the perspectives that it creates. Like keeping a coin in front of your eyes and blocking out the sun, focusing on our problem and praying the problem all the time makes you loose your perspective.Thanksgiving does a few things:
It brings God glory: When we worship God, the spiritual realm becomes saturated with an atmosphere of victory. God inhabits the praises of His people. Therefore the praises of God’s people are vitally important in our lives to help us experience God and build our faith. Gives you a better perspective on life: When we look at circumstances we can choose to look at it from a human perspective or from a Godly perspective. When we look at it from our human perspective we will tend to see the problem as being bigger than ourselves. When we see it through God’s eyes we will always see it by faith and know God is bigger than anything we ever face. This is the power of Thanksgiving and praise. It brings circumstances into a Godly faith perspective.Annoys” the devil and drives him away. Satan is scared of God. His only weapon against us is lies and deceit. When we worship God and give thanks, he can’t stand that atmosphere of faith and victory, neither can he then influence us with his lies. Worship and thanksgiving is one of the most powerful weapons against satan.
Secondly, prayer should be directed at the problem we are facing. (Mark 11:22-23)
God gave us authority to “speak to the mountain”. God has instructed us to live in the authority He has given us. To fail to live in this authority will mean there are many things that we face we will never overcome.Jesus has the ultimate authority over everything in the universe. Some of this authority has been delegated to us. We have authority over satan and demons. We also have authority over the physical creation. Just like Jesus spoke to the tree and it died, He told us to do the same with the “mountains” in our lives.When we live a life of thanksgiving, we will understand how much of these circumstances are under our authority in Jesus, and then have the faith to speak to it and expect a change.
How do you give thanks?
Thanksgiving can only happen from a heart that is worshipping God in spirit and truth.
John 4:23 But the time is coming—indeed it's here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way.
To be able to worship God in spirit and truth you would need to know what the truth is ... and that is only found in His Word. Meditating on the Word of God is vital for a person to know and understand the promises of God. When we are in difficult circumstances, it will be the Word of God that is in our hearts that will birth true Worship and thanksgiving.
When my body tells me I am sick, the Word of God will be eternally standing firm saying “by his wounds I am healed” 1 Peter 2:24. In an atmosphere of worship based upon God’s Word, these promises then begin to build my faith and faith is what overcomes the World. 1 John 5:4
How do you speak to the mountain?
In the same way that Jesus overcame the temptations in the desert when satan tempted Him, we should follow the same pattern. We should answer our circumstances with scripture. When we “speak to the mountain” we should never speak things that we feel or are in our own effort, but simply based upon the promises of God in His word.
For this reason it is important to study God’s Word and meditate upon it so we can internalize His promises. When the Word is in our heart, it will determine our first reaction to any “mountain” we face. When we meditate on the lies we get from the world, our lives will be determined more by media, news, etc than by God.
Just like God told Joshua (Jos 1:8) that he would succeed in everything he does if he meditates upon God’s Word, we will have the same outcome. The same promise is made in Psalm 1:2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
In the face of difficult circumstances, the Word should be living in you richly so that – just like Jesus in the desert – you would know what to answer your “mountain” when it speaks to you.
Posted by Trevor Botha.
Christianity is greatly misunderstood by many Christians and
non-Christians alike. To be a Christian is much more than just simply believing
in God and be a good person.
The central focus of the Christian faith is the life, death,
burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Although this blog will not
be aimed at proving this, I would like to mention that this is not something
that we just blindly believe. Any authentic Christian should be a skeptic and
make sure that what they belie... 
