Thankfulness in our prayers

Paul says, I remember you in my prayers, and he does so by way of thanksgiving, which is probably one of the weaker elements in our prayers. I do not know if there is enough thanksgiving in our public prayers, or if, personally, there is enough thanksgiving in my private prayers. I think that our prayers are meant to be rich with thanksgiving.  Psalm 103:1–22 and Psalm 136:1–26 are two good examples of prayers that are full of thanksgiving. Part of our thanksgiving, the apostle Paul shows, is that we ought to be grateful for one another, and we ought to be grateful for each other in our prayers.

I do not think that we ought to get into mentioning people that we are grateful for in our public prayers. I think that you would end up with an ingroup and an outgroup then, and (I think) you could end up with some asking, What about me? It is instructive though, that the apostle Paul apparently is mentioning Philemon by name in prayer, with thanksgiving for Philemon’s ministry. He is grateful, and so he gives thanks to God for him in his prayers. It ought to be a part of our prayer life that we give thanks for things we are grateful for.

For example, are you grateful for your church? It is not a perfect church, is it? There are a lot of flaws in the church, a lot of flawed people in the church. But, looking at the whole thing, are you grateful and express that to God? Do you thank God for your church, for the history of your church, for the leadership of the church, for the membership of the church? We ought to be doing this. How about gratitude for individuals within the church? For regular individuals, ordinary members of the church, for elders in the church, for trustees in the church, for deacons in the church, for older and wiser members of the church, Sunday school teachers and for children who are showing faithfulness. If the apostle Paul does this, it probably ought to be a characteristic of our prayer. I suspect that it is not. I suspect that we probably do not go that far. I suspect that we probably do not spend enough time in prayer, that our prayer time has to fit in with the other priorities that we have, so when we pray, we never quite get to that. All I am saying is that it would be a good thing if we began to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, and so gave thanks in our prayers for individuals according to the categories that I have just listed.

That does not mean that those people are perfect that we have never been wronged by people within the church and we are not bruised and battered and hurt and disappointed—always it has been so, and still and ever thus it will be. Does that mean that we can not be thankful? No, it does not. In light of the whole of Christ’s work in his church, you ought to be thankful. If you go to a church that is not a faithful church, that is not proclaiming the gospel, in which you do not hear the truth, I am not saying you should be thankful for any church, no matter how heretical it is, no matter how unfaithful it is. If you have a faithful church with godly members, then we ought to be thankful.¹

Terry L. Johnson