Diet & Wisdom Appetizers

I attended a small group meeting last night and one of the gentlemen in the group brought up a great point about prayer. I chewed on his words throughout the night and they are still running around in my brain today so I thought I’d best share them.

The topic of discussion was how we ought to be praying. This man felt led by the Lord to present his requests to God and immediately offer thanks to God for hearing him and answering his prayers. Rather than dwelling on repetitive prayer, God impressed him to spend his prayer time thanking God for the answers. Even though my friend has no way of knowing how God will answer his prayers he felt it was important to be thankful in advance. I liked this so much, I’ve decided I’m going to adopt this into my prayer life.

We know that God hears us when we pray because scripture is filled with reassurances that God hears us. There are scriptures that tell us that Jesus Christ is interceding on our behalf to the Father so we know that whatever we pray in His name, God has heard us.

Of course we have no way of knowing the exact specifics of how our prayers will be answered. God is always in control regardless of how we present out begging, pleading and tenacious petitions to Him. How and when He chooses to answer our requests is based on our attitude, our heart, whether we’re walking in faith or unforgiveness, etc.

Starting today, when I prayed about my day and asked God to help me to be in control of my food rather than letting my food control me, as soon as I spoke my request, I thanked God for hearing me. I also started thanking and praising God for the victory I know I will have in successfully losing weight.

Rather than praying, “I wish you would take away these food cravings TODAY, God,” I prayed, “Thank you, Lord Jesus for helping me to overcome these food temptations today.”

As I’ve mentioned before, attitude is everything. Isn’t it better to carry around an attitude of faith that I will be successful rather than a half-baked attitude that I hope I’ll succeed and lose weight someday?

There’s always something to chew on. Rather than chew on something that is unhealthy and filled with empty calories, I believe I’ll chew on a heart full of thanks.

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. ~Estonian Proverb

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34 (NLT)

PRAYER FOR TODAY: I thank you Lord for all that you have blessed me with in this lifetime. I know that you hear my prayers and I thank you for that. I ask that you would search my heart and see if there be any wicked ways in me. Forgive me of my sins and may I harbor no unforgiveness against anyone. I pray that you will hear my requests and grant them according to Your Will and not mine. Your will be done on earth as it is Heaven. I ask all these things in your holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.