Thanksgiving and Prayer

Yesterday we considered the biblical exhortation to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thess. 5:18). But there is another God-honoring response to "all circumstances" and that is to pray. "In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" it says in Philippians 4:6.

Each day, as I conclude my time with the Lord, I try to write a Scripture or quote on an index card to carry around with me during the day. The blue index card with the following verse and thoughts from Charles Spurgeon on it is a little worn now--I've been carrying it around and meditating on it for days! It's a reminder to me to make my requests known to God:

"Be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit." Psalm 28:1

"Be not deaf to me--Genuine suppliants are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will--they must go further and obtain actual replies from heaven, at once if possible; they dread even a little of God's silence. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more lamenting for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, he will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become forever silent to our prayers! This thought suggested itself to David, and he turned it into a plea.... When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and his ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salavation. Jehovah is our rock, the unmoveable foundation of all our hopes and refuge in time of trouble. Charles Spurgeon

Thank God that he is not deaf to us. He hears us when we call (Psalm 4:3). So let this unshakeable promise drive us to seek God in prayer, in EVERYTHING!