REFLECTIONS

Prayer in Thanksgiving

Gracious and loving God, we come to you today in humble thanksgiving for all our many blessings. We give thanks for your creation of heaven and earth, for the universe with all its majesty and mystery, and for our lives that are a part of it all. When we pause from our busy lives, we find elegant refinement within its smallness, and in its vastness, endless wonder.

Our lives bathe in surroundings that breathe the air of life, waters to refresh our souls, and nutrients to sustain our being. Yet we take so very much for granted—the extraordinary and the usual, the ways of nature and the many things we can’t explain, the humanity you gave us and your Spirit that indwells us.

 How blessed we are to be created in your image and to be granted responsibility to oversee your creation. And how grateful we are that you granted us the freedom to do it as we choose, even at the risk of our getting it wrong! Then when our judgment goes astray, we are blessed that you transform our many mistakes into good for those who love you.

Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the land we live in, the freedom we enjoy; and the communities, neighbors, and friends who share it with us. We thank you for the gift of family, for the privileges to worship you without fear, for the liberty to move about with no restraint, and for the opportunity to pursue a way of life in ways of our choosing.

We pray to freshen the memories of our yesterdays. Memories of those who envisioned what this country might someday be, and of those many lives sacrificed to make it so. Of memories of good times blessed with smiles; and memories of trying times to help us grow. We have been blessed by all that has gone before us; we will be blessed by whatever still lies ahead; and we are blessed by today.

Most of all we are thankful for the love you reveal in so many ways but none greater than the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus Christ. Though in very nature God, He humbled himself as a mortal man and He became obedient to death, even death on the cross. Through his sacrifice, our sins are washed away, and we are blessed with everlasting life.

So today, we praise you in grateful Thanksgiving for your love and the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. For it is in his holy name we offer this our prayer.

Amen

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

Click here for Printer Friendly Version