Our prayers, like Paul’s, should richly be adorned with thanksgiving. We should realize, as James put it, that every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father (James 1:17). And thanksgiving is a distinctive mark of Christian prayer. Jeffrey Wilson points out that in the writings of pagans like Homer, you will find a great number of prayers to the various Greek gods, but you will almost never find prayers of thanksgiving. And why is that? Well, it is for the same reason that you and I live in an increasingly thankless society—a cynical, secular society that knows nothing of thanks, because it also knows nothing—as the pagans knew nothing—of the grace of God.
You and I have the great privilege of praying not just to a great God—he is that—not just to a majestic God, not just to a fearful God, but to a God of mercy and grace who delights to bless us and has blessed us freely through his Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christian prayer should be filled with thanksgiving to the Lord. Here is how Wilson puts it:
Richard D. PhillipsA constant spirit of thanksgiving marks out those who have become sensible of God’s multiple mercies.Hence, Paul, Silas, and Timothy are daily filled with fervent thanksgiving to God as they think about what his grace has wrought in the lives of these Thessalonians. Well, Paul wraps all this together at the end of First Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5:17–18). He exhorts us to “Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”1
3 nous rappelant sans cesse l'œuvre de votre foi, le travail de votre amour, et la fermeté de votre espérance en notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, devant Dieu notre Père.