This is day 27 of our 27 day gratitude and prayer guide in preparation for Thanksgiving. You can download the entire guide here.
Day 3: Respond to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
On a separate sheet of paper, write out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, but this time paraphrase it, writing it in your own words.
Re-read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and respond
Write this passage down on a sheet of paper, but paraphrase it into your own words.
Go back and read through your answers and reflections from the past two days on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and related scriptures. Spend some time in solitude thinking about the scriptures and your thoughts from those two days.
Start a gratitude journal. Each day, write down at least one thing that you are thankful for. What has God made, or given you, or taught you, or how has He blessed you?
Prayer of Supplication
Preparation for Prayer
On your paper or in your journal, write down your thoughts related to the following questions:
What are the challenges that make it hardest to be thankful?
Who do you know that is going through a storm right now? How might you be an encouragement?
Pray a prayer of supplication
Spend time praying for the answers you wrote to the questions above, praying for God to work in you and in others. You can use the following as a guide.
Father, I thank you for the times of plenty and the times of want. I pray that in the challenges I face, that you help me rely on the strength that you provide that can get me through this.
Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see how you work in my weaknesses. Let me see your hand in the pain and the hurt. Refine me through the things that I face, that I might walk closer to you.
Give me a heart that can truly thank you when it’s the hardest to do so. Father, I pray for ___________ and the storms that they face. Show me how I can be an encouragement and a support. Show me how I can point the way to your strength, that they too can know gratitude in the hardest times. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.