“Prayer of Intercession”  (Giving Thanks)

Romans 1:8-9: I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all...without ceasing, I make mention of you in my prayers...’.

There are two distinguishing marks of Paul’s prayers that -  Lord willing - I would like to examine together.

One of the first elements is his natural outflow in expressing  gratefulness and thankfulness to God, as seen in this Romans passage.

And, the second is his prayerful concern for fellow believers - a point I will just mention in passing tonight as we go along and - Lord willing - take up next week.

We know this for certain: Paul never lacked in his bent toward giving thanks - you find it often in his writings. 

Let me just point out quickly some examples and, as we go through, you will notice how some say ‘blessed be God’ or ‘praise to God’ - all a form of thanks unto Him. 

For instance in Eph 1:3: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ:...’. 

Then 2 Cor 1:3: ‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;...’.

And I Cor 1:4: ‘I thank my God always...for the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus...’.

And Eph 5:20: ‘...giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...’

To repeat these Scriptures again, they are Eph 1:3; 
2 Cor 1:3; 1 Cor 1:4; Eph 5:20.

There are others, I am sure, so do some searching on your own, if you like.

There are also many examples throughout all of the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms, of this one element of prayer, this thankfulness, this gratefulness or praise.

Sometimes it is also recorded as ‘magnifying’ the Name of God. 

So - Paul was responding to the same goodness of God as the Psalmist did when he wrote in Ps 100:4: ‘Enter into His [God’s] gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His Name.’

Also, we can look at Ps 107:21-22: ‘Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.’

And - in Ps 116:17: ‘I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.’

You see, then, it is clear in the Bible that God is well pleased with thanksgiving from His people.

If we see that no where else, we certainly see it in the lives of the Israelites in the wilderness.

It seemed they were always dissatisfied with whatever God did through Moses. 

Complain - complain - complain was their constant and natural disposition.

There was no real ground of gratefulness within them for all God was doing and had done for them. 

Manna was not good enough for them - Moses was misleading them - why did God bring us out here to the desert to die? - why did He not just let us stay in Egypt? - and on and on it went!

I wonder - I really wonder - how many thought of what they had already received from the hand of the Lord and actually said, in the recesses of their hearts,- ‘thank-you, Lord’.

Benefits from His hand abounded toward them every hour of every day - great, eternal benefits, small temporary ones.

They should have been thanking Him, not always grumbling! 

God would have been well-pleased with such hearts of gratitude and praises toward Him.

But the fire of gratitude was never kindled - never stirred to doing the right thing. 

No wonder the prophet wrote in Lamentations 3:22: ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.’

God has made it amply clear in His Word, then, that a grateful heart, a spirit blessed with appreciation, is the mainstream of fellowship and blessing with Him.

Godliness with contentment is great gain, and contentment springs from the music of a grateful heart.

Luke, in chapter 17, reported what Jesus taught concerning this matter of gratitude. 

Let us look at it for a few moments before we come back to Paul’s prayers.

As Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem one day, He was met by a group of ten lepers who called out to Him for help.

He told them to go show themselves to the priest of the temple, which was the normal thing for them to do, according to the Levitical law.

And - on their way, they were healed.

Can you guess how many came back to Him to express thanks when they discovered what happened?

It was only one - only one-tenth of the group actually made his way back to Jesus to say ‘thank-you, Lord, for what You have done.’

Are we not bound, in this natural life alone, to give thanks to those who help us in one way or another?

We express, or - at least - we should express thankfulness for thinking about us, for what we receive, and have received from our parents, our friends, our associates, our schoolmates, or whoever - is that not as it ought to be?

I know there are some who think the world owes them a living - and would not consider the rightness of doing such a thing.

I think this may be one of the curses of this present generation - complaining and murmuring of what was not given rather than thankfulness for what they did receive.

When the leper made his way back to Jesus, he was rendering to his Benefactor the proper due - the giving of thanks for such a tremendous gift.

‘Then one of them, upon seeing that he was cured, turned back, recognizing and thanking and praising God with a loud voice: And he fell prostrate at Jesus’ feet, thanking Him [over and over]. And he was a Samaritan.’ 

You can find that in Luke 17:15-16. I read it from the Amplified translation.

Look at how he thanked the Lord - this was not just a cold ‘thank-you, nice seeing you, goodbye’ and then on his way.

Oh, no! Look at it: ‘upon seeing he was cured, turned back, praising God...’.

He glorified God with a loud voice. 

What a super-colossal event this was for him!

Leprosy was a terrible disease - he had suffered a miserable existence - ostracized from society to a wretched, beggarly life. 

How long he had been suffering is not known - but we do know it was not a pleasant way of living - it was downright terrible!

But - now his skin was clean, clear - a drastic change had taken place in his life. 

Would you have faintly whispered out ‘praise God’ at such a time as this? 

Oh, no - he shouted it out with a loud voice.

It came from the depth of his being - with his whole heart, his voice, his soul, his substance, with all his might and at the top of his lungs - it was just ‘PRAISE GOD!’

And then he fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus - humbled before Him, as if to say, ‘Lord, I am the least of these my brethren to receive of Your mercies!’

Listen - true gratefulness - real, genuine thankfulness - can only find one way to express itself. 

And that is in meekness and lowliness before the Lord.

Who among us can say, ‘I am worth it - I deserve His mercies’?

Can you? Can I? No - not one can!

And as this healed man was lying at the feet of Jesus, he gave Him thanks. 

Was he not blessed almost beyond belief? 

He met Christ that day! 

Remember, these lepers dared not get close to Jesus when they called out to Him - that was one of the rules for lepers - to keep a safe distance between themselves and others.

So - yes - he truly met Jesus that day! 

He turned back when he saw his clear, clean skin - turned  around - and rising above to higher ground in his spirit - rising to a devout recognition of the Lord’s kindness - he said ‘thank-you, Lord’ in the best way he knew how to do it. 

And when he did, he got another big blessing in his glorifying God.

And - what was that? - What else did he receive?

He was given the insight to see God in Christ - was given a vision into the spiritual truth of Christ.

He saw the Two connected to Each Other - God in Christ and Christ in God - the mystery of the divine and the human person of Jesus Himself.

Now - that is a revelation he would have missed had he not come back to do what was right - to express his unspeakable appreciation to God in Christ.

Yes - it is only to His grateful own that God casts forth the priceless pearls of His revelation.  

He does not cast those precious jewels before ungrateful hearts - you can count on that!

Now - think about this very carefully as you bring this truth before the Lord in your own heart. 

I leave this between you and the Holy Spirit as we go on.

Jesus commended the leper for coming back by asking the question about the other nine: ‘where - oh, where are the other nine?’

With this question, He indicated that thanksgiving is the right thing to do for any heavenly blessings He showers upon us.

Because they did not follow through, the other nine missed out on the spiritual significance of the event of their lives. 

The lone leper chose to do what was right in turning back to Jesus - and was rewarded for it.

These ten lepers had faith - else they would not have prayed to Jesus for healing - yet, none but one came to thank Him.

How many of us gladly take whatever benefits the Lord gives us?

We all do - but, for every one that comes our way, our deep impulse ought to be as this single leper’s was - to fall at the feet of Jesus and give thanks.

Would to God that our thanks were in proportion to His blessings toward us! 

Or - better yet, exceed our petitions to Him by a perpetual disposition of a grateful spirit.

Yes - it would be the end of our grumblings and murmurings - we would be too full of thankfulness to have room for complaining.

We sometimes pray much, and that is a good thing. 

But - how often, and how much in those prayers, do we praise and thank Him, magnify His Name for His mercies and compassions He has given us in Jesus Christ?

It is a good thing to be like the one leper - to ‘...turn back, to recognize, to praise God, to fall at the feet of Jesus, and to thank Him over and over again.’

What a masterpiece of creation God had made of him at that very moment of complete deliverance from his leprous bondage - full of thankfulness!

The same can be said of Paul, only Paul’s bondage was a different kind.

In Romans 1:8, the Scripture read earlier, Paul started his letter to these Christians with the testimony of thanking God, a gratitude that flowed out of him because of Jesus Christ: ‘I thank my God through Jesus Christ...’.

It was Jesus Christ Who had given him free access to the throne of God by His perfect work of redemption.

It was Jesus Christ Who delivered Paul from the war of sin that he was battling, which you can read for yourself in
Rom 7:24-25.

And, Paul saw, without one doubt, it was because of Jesus Christ that he was interceding for these Christians in Rome.

Where do you suppose Paul would have been if it had not been for the Lord’s mercies and compassions toward him?

He would still have been the same old Saul, still zealous for God, still seeking to rid the world of these same Christians. 

He certainly would not be praying for them - he would not be thanking God for them - would he?

In Rom 10:2, he prayed for Israel - and he was writing this from experience now - he prayed what he knew about - that ‘they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.’

They were ignorant of God’s righteousness, going about to establish their own - they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God - ‘For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.’ (Rom 10:1-4)

By this time, Paul saw the difference between what he had been in his own righteousness and now was since he met Christ.

He would never have understood, he would never have taken it as his own, if he had not been given the insight into God’s nature and God’s purpose in Christ.

His eyes were not out-of-focus anymore!

Christ had lifted him up into the very presence of God by His righteousness, not Paul’s, and he saw God as never before.

That blessed change in him made him see how Christ had changed him - had changed his zeal for God according to
the knowledge of God’s righteousness in Christ.

And - it was what made him treat these Christians so differently now.

Is it any wonder he prayed: ‘I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ...’.

Is it not the most wonderful of all reasons to thank Him - when Christ makes things plain concerning God?

What if we were in Paul’s shoes now - would we, not also, be writing what he wrote in Eph 5:20 with as much clarity and strength as he did there? 

Look at it: Eph 5:20 - ‘Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

And in 1 Thess 5:16-18, again he said: ‘Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’

‘On every occasion, in every set of circumstances, have the spirit of thanksgiving unto God, pray without ceasing, and in everything let thanksgiving ring out from your hearts’, he said.

Other translations of this read: ‘Make it a habit to thank God for everything. If you follow this advice, you will be working out the will of God expressed to you in Christ Jesus.’

Yes - it can be done - yes, it is to be done - Christ made thanksgiving possible - God willed it in the Gift of His Son.

Heb 13:15 - ‘By Him - by Christ, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name.’

We will never come to a time when we can say, ‘I have thanked the Lord enough now!’

When we consider the priceless favor of God we have received by Christ, His Gift of Life, His pardon for sin, His cleansing from sin daily, the blessings of the Cross, the ministry He entrusts us with, His mercy upon mercy, His grace upon grace, His myriads and myriads of heavenly blessings, we will never come to the end of thanks unto Him.

And - you can count on this - we would have nothing - absolutely nothing - to ever, ever murmur about or complain about.

We have a place in God that is far better than we could ever have on our own course of life - a course of life that we could call a life of the leprosy of sin.
 
I pray we would believe that with our whole heart - I pray we will accept that - I pray we all would be so blessed as Paul was - blessed with a bent toward gratefulness to our God for this far better place we have in Him.

Thanks be to God for His grace to give us the opportunities to express our thanks. 

Oh, yes - yes - yes - ‘thanks be to God for His unspeakable Gift’ - let it ring out always in your prayer   before Him and in all you do in your life this week - thank God without ceasing! Amen!

SONG: “Give thanks with a grateful heart...”

SONG: “In everything give thanks, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you: in everything give thanks, etc.”

Now - go forth this week, as you work this all out with your Lord - to change your heart and life into a testimony of praise unto Him!
                           
                            So be it!