“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Col.4:2).
On my journey to the cross I met others who were on the same road. Who made it, and who didn’t, I cannot tell, all I knew was that I was lost and seeking God’s direction. I had read enough of my Bible to know that God offered a blessed life, so I wasn’t about to ‘join anything’ that added misery to my life. This was not easy to negotiate. The attitudes of my fellow travellers ranged from “staunchly unhappy” to “strangely gleeful.” But God was good, He put in my way souls “with an attitude of thanksgiving.” They were oases of hope in that spiritual wilderness.
Since becoming a Christian I have been blessed to be amongst the grateful.
I cannot say, as some do, that the most grateful people I have ever met in my life possess little or nothing. I was sent to a home in Texas and found myself at the door of a small mansion. There I met a sister in the Lord who was full of the joy of the Holy Spirit. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had been standing in the doorway of a hut, God was the object of her thankfulness, and it showed. She had become “faithful with much,” because she would have been just as “Faithful with little.” She gratefully served God where she was.
At the heart of prayer is the realisation that you are heard of God. But prayer will stop or turn toxic if you cease being watchful and grateful. The devil, if allowed, will turn your thoughts into worldly frustrations, and you will lose your footing. Having lost sight of the goal, gratitude turns at once to complaint.
So, when prayer is sustained, focused appreciation, you can be assured that you are heard of God.
John Staiger
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