A Thanksgiving Prayer

Dear Lord,

We thank you for your goodness.

It is too simple to blame YOU for all that is wrong in the world, all the evil and its consequences.

Likewise it is too easy to excuse ourselves from all the wrong we ourselves commit that brings pain and heartache to others.

Hence, we confess your goodness and acknowledge your worthiness.  YOU, O Lord, are worthy to be praised and to receive our thanksgiving.  And so, we thank you for your goodness.

We thank you for your love.

We know that we are loved.  For YOU, O Lord, so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son, that we might have life—Salvation from condemnation for the wrongs we have committed.  We are forgiven.  For, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  We thank you for your love for us and for the gift of salvation in Christ, for which we are more than grateful.

We thank you for your truth.

YOU are true.  In YOU there is no lie.  YOU do not deceive.  YOU have no bent purpose or twisted motive.  YOU are consistent, ever so faithful, and even longsuffering in your commitment to us and our welfare.  We thank you for your trueness, for your endurance of humanity, for your constancy, for your truth.

We thank you for your transforming work.

Though imperfect, weak, and wanting, we thank you for our families.  For, YOU seek to redeem and heal our family brokenness and neediness.  Though battered, beaten, and broken, we thank YOU for our lives, for you redeem and renew and make whole again.  In Christ we are becoming new.

We may yet be hungry, thirsty, tired, and worn; nevertheless, we thank YOU.  For, YOU give strength to the weak.  YOU feed the hungry and give drink to those who thirst.  Indeed, YOU shall satisfy those who hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness.   We thank you for the hope that is in Christ.  For YOUR promises are true and faithful.

And when we cannot give thanks; when we are too shattered, too fearful and/or have lost our faith, so as to have given up on hope and become thankless in our attitude and posture, we thank you that YOU do not give up on us.  YOU sustain us and encourage us to remain faithful, enabling us to believe anew and to trust and to keep the faith. 

And so we thank you, and we celebrated this season of Thanksgiving by acknowledging all that is good and loving and satisfying and meaningful and caring and encouraging and life-giving that comes from YOU.

Thank YOU Lord!