{"id":5879,"date":"2014-11-28T02:11:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T02:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5879"},"modified":"2014-11-28T02:11:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T02:11:50","slug":"first-of-all-give-thanks-part-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5879","title":{"rendered":"First of all, give thanks\u2014Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the last two days I have posted excerpts from my book, <em>First of All, Pray<\/em>. Today I\u2019ll conclude the portion on this one powerful way to pray\u2014the giving of thanks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Excerpt from Chapter 1<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Warning Concerning Thanklessness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is absolutely essential that you maintain an attitude of thankfulness. Romans 1:21-23 delivers a clear warn\u00ading: <em>\u2018For even though they <strong>knew <\/strong>God, they did not honor Him as God or <strong>give thanks<\/strong><\/em> <em>but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incor\u00adruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling crea\u00adtures\u2019 <\/em>(emphasis added)<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is the outcome if you believe in God yet neglect to give thanks to Him? You gravitate toward anything <em>except <\/em>Him! You become futile in your speculations and your heart becomes darkened. Without realizing it, you start worshiping material things and slide into folly. The Word says you become good for nothing, self-serving, and ignorant of your own dangerous stupidity. On the other hand, when you cultivate a thankful heart, you protect yourself from falling into the foolishness of self-absorption and delusion. Indeed, gratefulness sur\u00adrounds you with a deception-resistant shield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge in 1 Timothy 2:1 is to offer thanksgiv\u00ading to God even when you are praying for someone with whom you have fundamental disagreement. If you in\u00adcorporate thanksgiving into all of your prayers, then the grace of God will meet and overtake you in your endeav\u00adors. Thanksgiving: don\u2019t let yourself pray without it!\u201d (Excerpt taken\u00a0from pages 23-24; <em>First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis;\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 2013\u2013Dorothy Frick)<\/p>\n<p>Hope you had a happy Turkey Day, and may your thanksgiving to the Lord be glorious!<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.<\/em> Psalm 105:1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the last two days I have posted excerpts from my book, First of All, Pray. Today I\u2019ll conclude the portion on this one powerful way to pray\u2014the giving of thanks. Excerpt from Chapter 1: A Warning Concerning Thanklessness \u201cIt is absolutely essential that you maintain an attitude of thankfulness. Romans 1:21-23 delivers a clear [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giving-thanks","category-timelyexcerpts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5881,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5879\/revisions\/5881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}