Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2
Yesterday’s Scripture Reading from ourdailyverse.com was Colossians 4:2. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” What a gracious gift God has given us through these words of Paul. We have been invited into a life of prayer. He doesn’t demand it but graciously offers us the privilege to not only come boldly before His throne but to come often – actually to stay in an attitude of prayer, making it the “heartbeat of our existence.”
“It is an opportunity to experience the profound intimacy of continual communion with our Creator, to align our hearts with His in every waking moment.” ourdailyverse.com
Through the years of knowing/quoting this verse, God has trained my heart to hear His voice, to be alert not only to the guiding hand and voice of His Spirit, but to watch with expectation for His answer and to discern His purposes unfolding in and around me. It has been in the watching and the staying alert, as Paul instructed his readers to do, that my prayers have morphed into not just requests but offerings of thanksgiving and praise. This way of praying becomes a way of living and has the power to change us from the inside out. It changes not only the way we think but the way we live and how we respond to life, to others, and to God.
We recognize that every blessing, every trial, every moment is an opportunity to experience God’s grace and faithfulness. Gratitude becomes the lens through which we view life, transforming even the darkest days into opportunities for praise.
ourdailyverse.com