The power of thanking God

Have you ever wondered how to pray about the chaos out there without being weighed down by its sheer awfulness? Here’s a hint: Your natural tendency is to gravitate to­ward the object you are observing. I learned this from my drivers’ ed teacher when I was fifteen. He warned the four of us crammed into the well-dented ‘beginner drivers’ car that if we watched cows and horses grazing in the field, that’s where we would end up—in the pas­ture and not on the highway! That’s why God included thanksgiving in His list of prayer methods—thanking Him causes you to gravitate toward Him and not the problem!

Have you ever been frightened about situations in your life and asked God for help? If you prayed without thanking or praising Him, you probably continued to feel very afraid, trying to battle anxiety on your own because your eyes remained glued to the problem. Giving thanks to God pulls your attention off of the enormity of the problem and onto the greatness of God. As you gaze at God, giving Him thanks for His willingness to do wonderful things for you, the anxiety you feel drains away. If you find it creeping back in, you just ramp up your thanksgiving to God again! Thanksgiving is a powerful antidote for the anxiety you feel.

Do you try to ignore fearful situations in your life in an attempt to resist fear? Do you think about Job when he said, ‘For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me’ (Job 3:25) and try to avoid Job’s out­come by pretending there is no problem? Is denial your strategy for dealing with fear? Is that the way you walk by faith?

Think of the boy David, one of the greatest wor­shipers in the Bible, watching sheep out in the pas­ture. When he spied the lion and the bear stalking his sheep, did he conquer his fear by ignoring the situa­tion? Of course not! He rose up, likely with a mixture of adrenaline, fear, and a strong protective instinct and killed the carnivores! His faith empowered him to con­front those hungry varmints despite the very real dan­ger! He didn’t seek to protect his faith by looking away from the predators or by denying their existence. Dead sheep would have been the outcome of that kind of faith walk. Even worse, without the experience of sub­duing the vicious beasts, David may never have been equipped to take down Goliath!

Ignoring evil, by definition, is ignorance! Thanking God, however, in the face of evil acknowledges His greatness despite the growing darkness. This power­fully applies to facing the destructive forces at work in our nation. Faith confronts the frightening events with the Word of God. Ignoring such forces in our country in an attempt to stay in faith actually prevents you from becoming a part of God’s solution to change the course of events. The sense of fear is not always the spirit of fear spoken of by Paul (see 2 Timothy 1:7); at times Holy Spirit-initiated warnings are alarming—even frighten­ing—yet they are sent by God to reveal that danger is looming. In response you pray and dig into the Word to prepare for battle—and victory.

When fear does rise up—and it will—ask God how to deal with it and the fearful situation instead of hiding under the covers, hoping the boogeyman will go away! Declare like David, ‘When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You’ (Psalm 56:3). Then in prayer con­front the giants both in your life and our nation, giving thanks to God for His Goliath-defeating power!

(The above paragraphs are excerpts taken from pages 20-23; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis; © 2013–Dorothy Frick; available on Amazon.com)

Have a glorious, thankful Thanksgiving! See you in December!

Dorothy