Prayer of Thanksgiving
November 26, 2014 7:00PM
Heavenly Father,
Maker of Heaven and Earth,
Redeemer of the Whole World,
And our Source of LIFE and LOVE and PURPOSE:
We gather today from various walks of life for the expressed purpose of praising you,
blessing your name,
and offering you our thanks
for all the goodness of this life.
We praise you for the splendid gift of this beautiful region of this corner of our nation. We rejoice daily for the beauty and resources we treasure living in this community.
We bless you for the bountiful produce of the land, the majesty of the mountains, the abundance of the ocean, and the beauty of the sky.
We thank you for the benefits of being citizens of this great nation and for the privilege of enjoying its many freedoms.
We do acknowledge that there are many challenges which hinder some from enjoying the full blessings of our national freedom.
We are mindful of the difficult days of conflict and stress being felt even now from the many corners of our nation, so we pray that you will show us how to be diligent in advancing the cause of freedom for all.
We are grateful for the many friends we have in other nations that we have all around this world. As we express gratitude to you for the way we have been blessed, we also ask for your kind blessings upon these special friends.
We also pray for our enemies–and we ask that you bless them and us in such a way that we all might enjoy the blessings of peace with justice.
God of courage, we thank you for those whom you have called to serve this nation in uniform,
for soldiers,
fire-fighters,
rescue workers,
and law enforcement personnel.
We are all become tragically aware of just how difficult and dangerous their jobs can be, so we ask you to bless them and keep them safe.
God of mercy, we thank you for the great exchange of salvation, where our lives were crucified with Christ, and where by faith we experience your gift of eternal and abundant life in Christ.
As we celebrate this greatest of all gifts we pray that our words and deeds might bear witness to your salvation to for all.
Almighty God,
help us to live not by our own resources,
not by our own strength,
not by the flesh,
not by our power,
nor by our might,
but by your Holy Spirit,
who has been poured out into our lives
as a glorious act of love and grace.
Finally, O God, we thank you for the gift of prayer.
We thank you that when we bow our heads and lift our voices that it is never a wasted act because you hear every word,
you understand every emotion,
your care about every need,
and you respond to each petition according to your will
and the divine purposes of your grace.
And so with that in mind we pause in these moments of silence so that each person might offer their words of praise, thanksgiving, and intercession….
And now with one voice we pray to you O God, the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, saying: OUR FATHER…
Thanks!: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier
by: Robert Emmons
publisher: Mariner Books, published: 2008-11-06
ASIN: 0547085737
EAN: 9780547085739
sales rank: 22133
price: $6.95 (new), $4.25 (used)
The first major study of gratitude that shows how “wanting what we have” can measurably change people’s lives.
Did you know that there is a crucial component of happiness that is often overlooked? Robert Emmons—editor-in-chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology—examines what it means to think and feel gratefully in Thanks! and invites readers to learn how to put this powerful emotion into practice. Scientifically speaking, regular grateful thinking can increase happiness by as much as 25 percent, while keeping a gratitude journal for as little as three weeks results in better sleep and more energy. But there’s more than science to embrace here: Emmons also bolsters the case for gratitude by weaving in writings of philosophers, novelists, and theologians that illustrate all the benefits grateful living brings.
