Thankfulness - Prayer

Link: Core Values
Focus: Thankfulness (Prayer)
Day: 16/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Image:

Still not decided on the image - temporarily scrapping it because I am so far behind.  Will have to address this.

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Setup:

Summarizing how thankfulness can be applied to the Prayer

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Prep:

Answering the question: how does thankfulness look with respect to the path of the Prayer

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Execution:

I began with prayer - and mostly want identify aspects to Prayer for which we should be thankful and because of which we can draw closer to Christ.

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Day 16 - Observations on Week 2 (Prayer)

My first day-of-thankfulness was supposed to speak to the nature of being thankful with respect to the Holy Scriptures - and it became, instead, an observation of the need for thanks and how it relates to Prayer.  So, I will follow my own lead and explain the transition from Prayer to Worship.

If prayer is the petition, worship is the container.  We are not called to worship without respite - and I believe this is because, if our hearts are aligned to the correct vectors and our attitude is properly oriented, what we get is right prayer - which can inform our worship.  However, we pray about what we think about - and we think about what we worship. This is the bridge.

We humans are built to worship; as I mentioned previously, I believe we ache for intimacy. It is technically an ache for intimacy with God - but we humans are marvelous at filling it with not only anyTHING but anything. We can fill it with drugs, alcohol, soda, sleep, music, or a multitude of other things. We can fill it with family, friends, duty, work, and an even more grand verisimilitude of abstractions. In some ways it fits these betters - because, in spite of how REAL God is, much of the ways in which we directly relate to him have characteristics which map to these abstractions.

To conclude, my observations about prayer is that, between the Holy Spirit and Prayer, I am remarkably better at reading - hence far better at reading the Bible. It is hard to regularly put down the abstractions of intellectual effort and pick up the banner of simple prayer.  So, at this time, between the two, my simple observation is simply - I desperately need to more diligently pray, and pray with reverence, and let it inform my decisions.  Which leads nicely into worship - because if prayer is what you in response to what you worship, then prayer can be a powerful feedback loop to let you know what you actually worship.