Start with Gratitude
5-Day Prayer Challenge
Holiday Edition
Day One Challenge
Welcome to Day One!
Are you ready to spend a little time focusing on prayer and gratitude?
Your challenge each day will focus on an application that will help you get through the Holiday season with grace.
You can download a PDF of the Basic Prayer Worksheet here – Basic Prayer Worksheet PDF
Starting at the beginning is always a good idea. When asked, Jesus taught to His disciples how to pray in Luke 11. We also read of Jesus’ teaching how to pray during a sermon He gave in Matthew 6.
Jesus included expressing thanks for our blessings in His simple example.
Forgetting the gratitude that you should have towards God can lead to many negative emotions and encounters.
Forgetting the blessings you have been given can make you unmerciful towards others (Mt. 18:32-35). It can also make you focus on what you do not have. This leads to that discontent that grows into covetousness.
So, count your blessings!
Today’s challenge is to practice gratitude in our prayers.
Take the Basic Prayer worksheet or your favorite journal and write a prayer that covers all the “sections” Christ mentioned in the model He gave the disciples.
The sections are praises to the Father, recognizing promises kept, requests for spiritual needs, requests for physical needs, and seeking His protection.
I think the first two naturally fall into gratitude because you are recognizing God’s power or authority, you simply need to say thank you for whatever you noted about Him and give thanks for any of the promises He has fulfilled. The other three you could acknowledge with thanks some way He has cared for someone’s spiritual and physical needs in the past and then make the new request.
Reminding ourselves of what He has already done shows our appreciation, but it also builds our faith. Every time we remember those things He has already done, we have confidence that He will do the things we ask of Him in the future.
Make sure that you include gratitude in each section.
I would love to hear from you – comment below one thing you are grateful for today. Inspire others to look for ways to be grateful each day. Enjoy!
Find Day 2 here –
To study this further by getting all five days of the challenge plus lots of extras, purchase the 5-Day Prayer Challenge – Surviving the Holidays with Grace study guide
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