“To Jesus prayer is everything; it’s a duty as well as a privilege, a right as well as a responsibility. We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but Jesus wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but Jesus wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”

Oswald Chambers, Prayer – A Holy Occupation, p. 7.

Please read the first blog post entitled “Why Fast?” This explains what fasting is and why we follow Jesus in this spiritual discipline as together we seek the heart of God.

Each day during our 21 Days, we will focus on one part of the ACTS prayer acronym – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We will spend between 3-5 days on each part of the ACTS prayer acronym. Each devotion will take less than ten minutes of your time.

We want to encourage you to grab a journal or a notebook – something to write on as you walk through each devotional. Yes, it will add a few minutes to the time it takes to do the devotion, and it will also deepen your experience and shape your walk with God for years to come. This journal or notebook will be a keepsake to remind you of God’s faithfulness during this challenging season for all of us.

Thanksgiving

Engage the Word

Read Colossians 2:6-7

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 

7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 

Thankfulness and thanking God are relatively frequent topics in Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1:3, 12; 2:7; 3:15, 16, 17; 4:2). The verb “abounding” (in thanksgiving) in v.7 is active, while the others here are passive, and is parallel to them in that they expand the main verb “walk in him.” In this way, “abounding in thanksgiving” is not a result of being rooted and built up in Christ, but something that naturally accompanies this way of walking in and following Jesus.

Paul makes sure we know that walking in Jesus is not a restricting experience but one in which the believer actively overflows with thankfulness. Living life in the Kingdom of God under the leadership of Jesus was an exciting privilege for Paul, and he wanted his readers to go deeper into their experience and respond to it with joyful praise to God. 

Reflect on the Truth

1. Have you “received Christ Jesus the Lord”? If so, what does this mean to you?
2. Another word for “abounding” is “overflowing.” Write down some ways that your life of walking “in Him” can be at the same time always abounding or overflowing in thanksgiving.
3. Reflect on the opportunities God is giving you for your faith to be rooted, built up and established in Christ. Take a few moments now to express your gratitude to God for putting these opportunities before you.
4. In addition to thanking God, who is someone that He has placed in your path to whom you might express your gratitude in some way? Think about a way you might be able to reach out and express gratitude to this person in the next week.

Depend on the Spirit

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (For example: you may write down, “Even with the difficulties that life in this broken world brings, thank you for helping me to see all of the things for which I can be grateful.”) The Lord can help us discern the path forward – through His word, His Spirit, His people.

For Prayer

Today, pray for those who are suffering in some way – through physical pain or sickness, grief from the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, divorce, emotional pain and struggles… Pray that even in the face of these great challenges, thankfulness may be found and by God’s grace, overflowing.

Content from these devotionals has been adapted from various resources, including The Bible Exposition Commentary by Warren Wiersbe, Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary by Derek Kidner and Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary by Tremper Longman