Read Philippians 4:6 from your Bible
The next step in securing victory over anxiety is thanksgiving. It is the three-fold cord which is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Therefore, don’t stop at prayer and supplication. If the third ingredient is missing you cannot overcome anxiety completely.
Rather than be anxious about any matter, make your requests and desires about that issue known to God. The request must, however, be wrapped up in thanksgiving.
The word ‘thanksgiving’ means the act of giving thanks. ‘Thank’, which is the root word, means “to express appreciation or gratitude to someone for a favour, service, gift, etc.” In essence, thanksgiving means showing appreciation. The Psalmist gave appreciation to God’s faithfulness in Psalm 103:1-4.
No matter how you pray and supplicate, if thanksgiving is not included, your prayer has missed its route to heaven. Thanksgiving is a must. It is like an envelope; the letter is unprotected and can be read by all and sundry, not minding how personal its contents may be.
Thanksgiving opens up the gates of God and ushers us into His presence; it grants us audience and makes our request acceptable. Until your prayer and supplication are wrapped up in thanksgiving, they can never get to God.
Read Psalm 100:4 from your Bible
Very few people have the key to the gates of God, but David did. He knew by revelation that God had gates and for our prayers to pass through the gates to God, the key of thanksgiving must be employed. It is impossible to gate-crash, yet many believe they can do so.
You must never get so burdened that you forget to thank Him first for what He has done for you. Regardless of what you may be going through, you must realize that without God’s mercies, it could have been worse than it is now.
Oftentimes, we are so bothered about what God is yet to do, forgetting what He has done already. The fact that you are still alive is worth thanking God for.
Read Isaiah 38:18, 19 from your Bible
The dead do not worry, the dead have no needs, they have no prayer requests or desires. You have needs, cares and desires because you are alive. That you are alive today is enough for you to give thanks, no matter what you are going through, because there is yet hope as long as you are alive (Ecclesiastes 9:4).
“Hope for what?,” you may ask. Hope that solution will come! For when you are alive, it is possible that your situation can be changed like so many others, including Job’s (Job 42:12).
No matter how terrible your situation is, it is not worse than that of Job, so give thanks! Job made it, you, also, will make it and your latter end will be far greater than the beginning, if only you will give thanks.
David was a man after God’s heart. He was a man of thanksgiving, praise and worship.
Jesus was referred to as the Son of David; He too was a man of thanksgiving. Do you know what?
Read 1 Peter 2:21 from your Bible
The Lord has left an example of His lifestyle to show us how we ought to live.
A life of thanksgiving is a life of sweatless and tasteful Christian experience. If you will settle down to acknowledge Him, He will acknowledge you. Give thanks for what He did yesterday and you will compel Him to act today. If there is any wilderness now, remember there were many deliverances before. If there is any desert now, remember there were blossoming gardens before.
If you must be free from anxiety, give thanks! Your prayer and supplication must be wrapped up in thanksgiving, for them to receive God’s attention. When you stop thanking God, you start failing God and your prayer and supplication remain dry, unfulfilling and never receive God’s attention.
To be free from anxiety, you must make thanksgiving, praise and worship a way of life. Many Christians don’t enjoy their prayer lives because it is dry and unfulfilling. This is because it is void of thanksgiving. Possess a merry heart and enjoy fulfilment! Proverbs
17:22 says: A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…
When you stop having a reason to thank God, then you have a reason to be imprisoned. You must not allow your prayer and supplication to be turned into complaining and murmuring. Remember that those who murmured in the wilderness were not helped, rather, they were destroyed.
Read 1 Corinthians 10:10 from your Bible
For God to be well pleased with your prayer and supplication and free you from anxiety, it must be void of murmuring and complaining. The Amplified Version of the above scripture explains better.
The reason you are overcome by anxiety may simply be because you complain, grumble and murmur a lot. Until you are free from that murmuring, complaining and grumbling spirit, you may never be free from anxiety. Now, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Blood of the Lamb, I command that spirit to leave you for ever! Amen! Enter into your liberty.
Shalom!
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