Expressing Gratitude

Thursday 20 April
READ: Psa. 100: 1 - 5
MORE LESSON: Psa. 89 : 1 - 2

You can never get the best of someone by murmuring and complaining about the person. Many of the prayers that people claim to pray to God are actually complaints. A person thinks he is praying and his words are, “Father, you see the way the economy is. You can see for Yourself that things are terrible and I am suffering. You know I go to church regularly and I pay tithes but still life is not easy. What else do you want me to do, Lord?” If that is how you pray, then you don't pray, you only grumble. Be it known to you that grumblers always come back with empty hands. If a grumbler ever gets something, it will be peanuts.
When children cry and disturb so much because they want something and the mother gets tired, she gives the child something little so that the mother can rest. She just puts a tiny thing in the hands of the child and says, “Take this and let me rest; don't kill me.” However, if the child keeps disturbing then the next thing she gives the child is a good spanking. A well behaved child, on the other hand, gets to be given everything he needs even when he doesn't ask for it. In fact, a well behaved child would be begged and patted to have the same thing for which a nagging child is spanked.
The Bible says in Psa. 100: 4, Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. This shows us how to approach God in prayer. The way to get the best from God is to thank Him. Expressing gratitude is the key to getting more and more from God. You get God’s attention when you thank Him and you turn Him off when you come complaining. Therefore, the password to accessing God's presence and getting Him to incline His ears to you is to come with thanks and praise. Saying 'thank You Jesus' is a sure way of getting His attention on a daily basis. For the fact that you need God's attention even more when you are in trouble, then you have to praise and thank Him more when you have problems. There is great wisdom in thanking and praising God even when you are in trouble. When things are good or bad, thanksgiving should never cease from you. Always praise the Lord.

Prayer/Action
* Father, I am grateful for yesterday, today and tomorrow, in Jesus’ name.
* In the name of Jesus, my needs today shall not overshadow my seeing God's goodness in the past.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every padlock used to shut down my destiny, break open today by fire, in the mighty name of Jesus.