Get Up With God
highly caffeinated daily bible doses to help start your morning off right

This week, we’re focusing on prayer for the easily distracted (like me), using the acronym ACTS as a guide:

A = Adoration
C = Confession
T = Thanksgiving
S = Supplication

Today’s topic: THANKSGIVING.

Most of my prayers tend to be of the HELP! variety. The pattern goes something like this:

(Something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(God answers my prayer. Then something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(God answers my prayer. Then something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(Repeat the above ad nauseam)

What’s missing? The THANKS! part. Waaaaaaaaaaay too often, I forget to express gratitude to God for all the wonderful answers to prayer he provides. It reminds me of when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one — a Samaritan — came back to thank him. Jesus’ response?

Where are the other nine?
Was no one found to return
and give praise to God
except this foreigner?
(Luke 17:17-18)

Take time right now to thank God for everything he’s done for you. Here are some verses to keep in mind as you do:

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.
(Ephesians 5:20)

Devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.
(Colossians 4:2)

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
(Psalm 100:4)

 Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
(Philippians 4:6)

. . . give thanks in all circumstances . . .
(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

THANK GOD!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
(Psalm 107:1a)

If you’re at all like me, you don’t thank God nearly enough for all the amazing, astounding and awesome things He does.

Don’t let another second slip by. Stop right now and thank Him for at least one thing for every year you’ve been alive. (For me, that’s 45.) I apologize in advance to all you octogenarians out there.

Ready . . . GO!

Yesterday, we kicked off NO GRUMBLING WEEK here on GUWG.

We started off with a pair of Bible verses that make it clear that grumbling, whining and complaining are bad things. We then issued a challenge: we asked all of our grumble-prone readers to (1) pinch themselves every time they felt a grumble coming on and instead (2) recite one of the verses.

I reported that by 7:14 a.m. I had already pinched myself four times. That number hit approximately 2,769 by the time I called it a day. But — with God’s help — I had managed to reduce my daily grumbling by an estimated 83.1%.

I received Twitter “tweets” reporting grumble-prevention-pinching going on all over the world. One person called for No Grumbling Week to be sanctioned by Congress as an annual national celebration. (If anyone knows Nancy Pelosi, please let me know.)

Today, I thought I’d offer a biblically approved antidote to grumbling. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you live out this verse moment by moment today.

Be joyful always;
pray continually:
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

How often are we supposed to be joyful? Always.

When should we pray? Continually.

What should we thank God for? Everything.

It’s hard to grumble when you’re joyful, praying and giving thanks!

We’ll close GIVE THANKS WEEK here on GUWG with a selection of thankful prayers from around the world and throughout the ages. Pray through ‘em right now and make ‘em your own . . .

You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you
and not be silent.
O Lord my God,
I will give you thanks forever.
(King David)

Thank You, Lord Jesus,
that you will be our hiding place
whatever happens.
(Corrie Ten Boom)

You have given so much to me.
Give one thing more — a grateful heart.
Not thankful when it pleases me,
as if your blessings had spare days,
but such a heart whose pulse may be your praise.
(George Herbert)

Dear Lord,
Thank You for this day.
Hold my hand and give me courage to
carry the cross You have chosen for me.
Let me never complain.
Let me smile and give strength
to my family and friends
and to all I come in contact with.
I accept what I have and will not ask,
“Why me?”
I will fight until you take me
because it is my belief
that I was made to serve You on earth.
(Betty McElwee)

Thank You
for unlocking doors we cannot open.
Thank You
for locking doors that we cannot lock.
Thank You
for being the key.
Thank You
for giving us yourself.
(Peter Lord)

AMEN

We’ll wrap up GIVE THANKS WEEK here on GUWG with a cornucopia of THANKS verses from all over the Bible. Pray through ‘em. Post ‘em in your room. Put ‘em in your heart. Praise God perpetually!

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
(1 Chronicles 16:8)

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
(Psalm 7:17)

I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
(Psalm 34:1)

Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
for the Lord is good;
his love endures forever.
(Jeremiah 33:11)

Thanks be to God!
He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15:57)

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Ephesians 5:19b-20)

Be joyful always,
pray continually,
give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16)

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually
offer to God a sacrifice of praise –
the fruit of lips that confess his name.
(Hebrews 13:15)

NEVER STOP THANKING GOD!

It’s GIVE THANKS WEEK here on GUWG, where all week we’ve been focusing on giving thanks to God for all his amazing, astounding, astonishing blessings.

As I sat here this morning still recovering from an overdose of turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, I stumbled across this rather sobering passage:

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in,
or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

The King will reply,
“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for
one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.”
(Matthew 25:37-40)

According to real-time statistics provided by worldometers.info, 8,698 people have already died from hunger today. In contrast, here in the USA we’ve spent more $33,426,958 on weight-loss programs today.

Yikes.

Want to put your thankfulness into action? Ask God to (1) help you ignore the “buy more stuff” messages the world is screaming at you and (2) open your eyes to the needs all around us. Here are some suggested action items for your consideration:

• Pray.
• Sell some of your stuff and give the $$$ away.
• Get involved in your community by helping out a local homeless shelter or food pantry.
• Instead of ignoring beggars on the street, take ‘em to Subway and buy ‘em a meal.
• Visit foodforthepoor.org, where for $36 you can feed a hungry child for a year.
• Go to worldvision.org, where you can donate goats, chickens and cows to starving families.
• Share food, clean water and the Gospel by sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
• Check out bloodwatermission.com, where you can help build sustainable wells in sub-Saharan Africa for pennies a week.

Here’s another verse for your consideration:

If anyone has material possessions,
and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him,
how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue
but with actions and in truth.
(1 John 3:17-18)

Since I started writing this, another 363 people have died from starvation. Let’s do something!

PUT YOUR THANKS
INTO ACTION

If I’m honest, most of my prayers go something like this . . .

(Something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(God answers my prayer. Then something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(God answers my prayer. Then something bad happens.)

Me: Help!

(Repeat the above ad nauseam)

What’s missing? The THANKS! part.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too often, I forget to express gratitude to God for all the wonderful answers to prayer he provides. It reminds me of when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one — a Samaritan — came back to thank him. Jesus’ response?

Where are the other nine?
Was no one found to return
and give praise to God
except this foreigner?
(Luke 17:17-18)

Take time right now to thank God for everything he’s done for you. Here are some verses to keep in mind as you do:

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.
(Ephesians 5:20)

Devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.
(Colossians 4:2)

 Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
(Philippians 4:6)

. . . give thanks in all circumstances . . .
(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

MAKE EVERY DAY
THANKSGIVING DAY!

It’s Wednesday. According to lots of polls and studies, it’s the worst day of the week and the day on which people do the most whining. In other words, it’s the day on which we tend to be the least thankful.

Let’s live differently today . . .

Shout for joy to Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
(Psalm 100)

Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your day with exclamation points . . .

SHOUT for joy!

WORSHIP with gladness!!

THANK God!!!

PRAISE Him!!!!

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s GIVE THANKS WEEK here on GUWG, where all week long we’re focusing on giving God thanks for his awesome, astounding, astonishing blessings.

Here’s a pair of verses I should force myself to repeat every 3.8 seconds . . .

Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.
(James 5:9)

Do everything without complaining or arguing.
(Philippians 2:14)

Basically, grumbling is the opposite of thankfulness. Here’s another verse for your consideration . . .

Be joyful always;
pray continually:
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

How often are we supposed to be joyful? Always.

When should we pray? Continually.

What should we thank God for? Everything.

The bottom line . . .

It’s hard to grumble when you’re joyful, praying and giving thanks!

It’s GIVE THANKS WEEK here on GUWG, where all week we’ll be focusing on giving thanks to God.

Here’s a good place to start . . .

Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good.
(Psalm 107:1a)

If you’re at all like me, you don’t thank God nearly enough for all the amazing, astounding and awesome blessings He gives us.

Don’t let another second slip by. Stop right now and thank Him for at least one thing for every year you’ve been alive. (For me, that’s 44.) I apologize in advance to all you octogenarians out there.

Ready . . . GO!