 On Thanksgiving Sunday, one of our elders, Monty Kerr, prayed the following prayer. We thought it was so wonderful we wanted to share it. To read the prayer just click below.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
LORD, may this prayer give you the honor you are due.
LORD, your gifts are so plentiful as to be innumerable and I often fail to realize thankfulness in my thoughts. I am like a child living my life and regretfully forgetting the giver. At times when we are asked to give thanks for some small thing I am slow to respond: my mind wanders in search of thankful thoughts, but not this day O, LORD. This day, I will remember you are the Creator.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… and for this I give thanks.
Two words, two simple words – “God created” beckon thankfulness because they remind me that I am a created being and I can be thankful for things created.
You created light, land, life, love, law:
You created the lights that govern the day and the night, and Jesus Christ whose life became a light for me in this dark world - For this I give thanks.
You created the land I live on and from which I gain my sustenance; out of it comes my food, my shelter and my pleasure. Land whose covering is in every color from the blue of arctic ice to the vast forests now in their autumn colors to the emerald greens of the rain forest and white sands of beaches and desert places. – For this I give thanks.
You created life, life in all its forms and places; from the deepest depths of the seas where no light reaches, to birds that soar over mountain tops in the great light of day. All this intricate and interconnected life gives me pause and I remember you are before all things and in you all things hold together. – For this I give you thanks.
You created love, love that binds us together and is demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. We love because he first loved us. In love I give you thanks for surgeons and physicians whose dedication and knowledge and skill provided healing for many among us, most recently Marjorie, Daphne, Doreen, Andrew and my daughter, Erin. In love I give you thanks for the healers of relationships whose understanding and compassion helps draw marriages together during the troubled seasons of their lives.
In love I give you thanks for those who comfort the grieving assuring them their beloved now stands in the presence of their creator. In love I give you thanks for those who volunteer their time, talent and money to the cause of the poor, the shut in – to the cause of demonstrating the true meaning God’s justice in this our own community and around the world through foreign missions. In love I give you thanks for teachers who help us raise our children in the way they ought to go and in love I give you thanks for our pastor who helps us immensely in our walk with God.
You created the law for us to live by and when we failed you meted out your justice, and when we failed again and further to abide by it you gave us your Son who fulfilled your law perfectly and through his blood shed on the cross you gave us the peace that surpasses all our understanding. – For this I give you thanks.
LORD you are the creator of all things, things in heaven and things on earth, things visible and invisible: of thrones and powers and authorities and rulers you are the Creator and I humbly give you thanks – may my heart beat praise for you, for you are my God, you are my Creator you are my all in all.
In Christ Jesus
Amen
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