Thanksgiving

Last week we saw that our debt to God is much greater than we can ever repay.  Not only has he given us our life here but, in dying on the Cross for our salvation, he has also given us the opportunity of sharing his glorious life in Heaven.  For these two gifts alone we could never be too thankful to him, but that is not all he has done for us.

God’s great goodness to us

In the Prayer of General Thanksgiving in the Prayer Book (1) we thank God for our creation (that is, for having made us), for our preservation (that is, for having looked after us all our life), and for all the blessings of this life (our home, our food, our friends and pets and all the good things that make us happy).  Then we thank God above all for his “inestimable love in the redemption of the world by Our Lord Jesus Christ” (that is, for Our Lord’s death on the Cross to bring us back to God).  After that we thank God for the means of grace (that is, the Sacraments – Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Communion – by means of which he gives us his grace and gets us ready for Heaven).. Lastly we thank God for the hope of glory (that is, the hope of Heaven).  So you can see we have plenty to be thankful for.

The Eucharist

The great public Christian act of thanksgiving is the Eucharist, which actually means The Thanksgiving.  For at the Eucharist we thank God for all his goodness to us, and in particular we there offer to God our Crucified and Risen Saviour himself as a thank-offering for our salvation.

Trust

When we realise how very good God is to us, we see how completely we can trust him to do what is best for us.  Of one thing we can be certain: so long as we trust God, then, whatever difficulties or troubles may happen to us, God will always bring good out of evil.  He will never let us down.

In the Eucharist we show our trust in God at the Offertory when we give ourselves to him completely for him to do with us as he wishes.  There is a famous prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola which expresses this perfectly, and which we can also use in our daily prayers.

Take, O Lord, and receive,

all my liberty,
my memory,
my understanding,
and all my will;
all I have and possess.

You, O Lord, have given all this to me.

To you, O Lord, I restore it.
All is yours.
Dispose of it entirely according to your will.

Give me your love and your grace,

for that is enough for me.

Only when we can mean every word of that prayer, only then do we really trust God.

Trust and prayer

Another way by which we show our trust in God is by praying to him, both for other people as well as for ourselves.  We should do this every day in our evening prayers, and we can also offer the Eucharist as an act of prayer, joining our prayers with those of Our Lord before his Father’s Throne in Heaven.  When we pray to God we show that we believe he hears our prayers and that we trust him to answer them as he thinks best.  Many people pray to God without really trusting him.  They take the line that it cannot do any harm and – who knows – it might do a bit of good.  Then, if their prayers are not answered in the way they want, or if God makes them wait for an answer, they lose faith in him altogether and stop praying.  It is not surprising that such prayers lead to nothing.  As St James says, “…ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter…must not expect to receive anything from the Lord (NRSV, 1:6-8).

It often happens that, before answering our prayers, God first keeps us waiting in order to test our faith.  Then when our faith has been proved and strengthened by our keeping on praying, he answers our prayers in the way he knows best.  So we must never make the mistake of losing our faith in God by giving up praying.

The Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-10)

Jesus told a parable especially to impress on us the need for perseverance in our prayers.  In the East families often sleep together in one room.  They lie on the floor on mattresses, arranged like the spokes of a wheel, with their feet towards a charcoal fire in the middle.

Well, in the parable a man is knocked up in the middle of the night by a friend at whose house a visitor has just arrived, tired and hungry after a long journey.  Unfortunately the householder has run out of bread and the shops, of course, are all shut.  So the only thing he can do is to go and borrow some from his friend nearby.  He hurries along the street and knocks on his friend’s door, and says to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him” (NRSV, Luke 11:5,6).

Inside the house everyone has settled down for the night.  If his friend is going to get up, and walk over the sleeping figures of his family and find the bread and unlock the door, he will wake up the whole household.  So a very grumpy voice answers him from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything” (NRSV, Luke 11:7).  But, as Jesus pointed out, even though he will not get up and give him the loaves for the sake of their friendship, yet, if his friend pesters him long enough, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.  So we must not be afraid to pester God with our prayers.  As Jesus added, “…Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (NRSV, Luke 11:9,10).

So we must thank God for his goodness, and show our trust in him by giving ourselves to him and by keeping on with our prayers even if he keeps us waiting for an answer.

SUMMARY

1. All through our life we should thank God, call upon him and put our whole trust in him.

2. In particular, we should do this at every Eucharist.  For then

a) we offer to God Our Saviour Jesus Christ as a thank-offering for all he has done for us to bring us to Heaven;
b) we offer our prayers for others as well as ourselves, and join them with Our Lord’s prayers before the Throne of God;
c) we offer ourselves to God in complete trust for him to do with us as he wishes.

Reference

Church of England (1662) The Book of Common Prayer.  Prayers and Thanksgivings.  Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/14-prayersandthanksgivings.html  (Accessed 20 August 2010) (Internet).