08.01.07
Prayer in the Shorter Catechism (6): And Thankful Acknowledgement of His Mercies
Read: Luke 17:1-19
For every ten who ask, there is only one who thanks. It is my observation as a parent that I do not need to educate my children into the art of asking for things, but I do need to teach them how to say thank you. Last time we looked at a hard word to say to God - the word ‘sorry’, and this time we are looking at another hard word to say to God - ‘thank you’. But just as saying sorry, or confession, is a vital part of prayer, so is saying thank you, or thanksgiving. And so we reach the last of our six studies into what the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches us about prayer in A.98 - “Prayer is an offering up to God of our desires, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with due confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies” by looking at what the Catechism has to tell us of the unbreakable link between prayer and thanksgiving. I want to see three things tonight about thanksgiving in prayer - first, the fundamentals of thanksgiving - things we need to understand about thanksgiving before we go any further; secondly, the fund of thanksgiving - things we are to give thanks for; lastly, the foundation of thanksgiving or why we need to give thanks to God for what He gives us. Read the rest of this entry »