Speak Words of Praise and Thanksgiving for Life and Blessings!
This is obviously a great time to focus on the power of praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and lives, so I want to share a link to a previous Seeds Of Faith post from the same time last year, The Awesome Power Of Praise And Worship, which has a lot of very good scripture references for all of us to meditate on and put into practice in our daily lives, as well as a link to great around the clock praise and worship music online..
And I also want to share a link to a VERY important message from Bayless Conley, which Dan shared with me as a perfect message to go along with Wednesday’s SOF post, When the Devil Comes Calling. Bayless really brings home the point that our lives ARE and WILL BE WHAT OUR WORDS SPEAK INTO BEING…FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE. So please listen to and STUDY Lord, Touch My Tongue. (And you can read or print it at this link.) And it really does make the point as described below on Bayless’ website:
“Our words can bring death or life, curse or blessing, peace or chaos. If we put the devil’s words in our mouth, it opens the door for the devil’s works in our lives. But if we put God’s words in our mouth, it opens the door for God’s works in our lives!”
So it’s up to us to determine whether we will open the doors of our lives and futures for the works of the devil or for the works of the Lord, which is why it’s SO important for us to understand that our words really do hold the power of life and death, and that we WILL eat the fruit of them…for either life or death; for blessings or curses. (Proverbs 18:21)
And finally, when I was looking for the above SOF post, I also found the following prayer, which I’ve updated just a bit to share, because it truly is timeless! So be blessed and encouraged and make a renewed commitment to SPEAK only life and blessings, which we do by keeping praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips as we speak the Word of God in all circumstances, take every thought captive and make them obedient to Jesus Christ and the Word of God!
Dear Lord,
There’s SO much to give thanks for today, but most of all we give thanks for your amazing love and your willingness to demonstrate it by sending your precious son to die on a cross for us so we could be forgiven for our sins and spend eternity with you in heaven! We thank you for your presence in our lives every day and for the power of the Holy Spirit and the work He does in and through us. We thank you for your word and the wisdom and understanding we gain by reading and meditating on it. And we thank you for all the angels you send to guard and direct us and all the ways they assist and minister to us at all times. We thank you for the people in our lives that we love and who are very special and significant to us in so many ways. And we thank you for those who love us and that you’ve allowed us to be significant in their lives as well. We thank you for your infinite mercy and grace and for the capacity you give us to forgive and love unconditionally. We thank you for peace that passes all understanding and that we can be content in all circumstances, because we know you work EVERYTHING out for good when we love you and are called according to your will and purpose for our lives. And we even thank you for the difficult times in our lives when you taught us what it means to be fully reliant on you and for the many things you teach us in such times and that they’ll ultimately be used for our good and your glory. We thank you for our abundance of material blessings, and we ask for your forgiveness for our lack of gratitude for how truly blessed we are in comparison to those who suffer from lack of things we consider essential, like clean drinking water and nutritious food, good health and a roof over our heads. We truly are blessed beyond belief, but we often fail to realize just how blessed and fortunate we are and to give you thanks for all that your hand has provided.
Thank you so much for the awesome privilege of seeing at least ten marriages and families restored in the past year by the power and promise of your Word. Please continue to give us YOUR wisdom, patience and guidance in all that we say and do, and let it ALWAYS lead us back to your word and a greater reliance on your power and love. We pray for your special blessings in the homes that are missing dads or moms this year and thank you for the work we know you’re doing in the lives and hearts of absent husbands and wives to bring healing and restoration to their families. Thank you for the work we’ve already seen you do in the lives of so many in our family, Lord, and thank you in advance for all we know you will be faithful to complete in the coming year, and for all of the families that will be restored by this time next year!
We love you and give you all praise, honor and glory, and ask you to lead us to live our lives as yielded and willing vessels so that your work can be accomplished through us and others will be able to see your love and goodness in us. Be Thou glorified in our lives today and always. In the most awesome and powerful name and authority of Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks! Amen.