I want to encourage you today to live a life of thankfulness and gratitude. And how do you do that practically? Well, what I do, and I want to encourage you today to do is what I call affirmative thankful prayer. These are short, affirmative, thankful prayers that you do throughout the day that re-center your focus on the Jesus that lives in you, the full-grown Jesus that lives in you, the full-grown Holy Spirit that lives inside of you.
What does this look like? It looks like throughout the day, I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus.” Or I’ll say His name, “Jesus.” Or I’ll say, “Holy Spirit, guide me. Father, thank you Jesus. I trust you Jesus. I’m releasing this to you, Jesus, I know you’re gonna do this.” These are all affirmative, thankful, gratitude type statements, prayers that you’re using to become more fully aware of the presence of God in you and around you, and it allows you to practice the presence of God.
I actually used to set a timer on my watch when I started doing this, and I would set it for every 15 minutes, or at least every hour. I would check myself and say, “How many times have I used this affirmative, thankful prayer?” And that was when I first got started, so I could practically begin to change my heart position on it and thus change my behavior and really not necessarily modify my behavior. This isn’t behavior modification. This is changing your heart towards a life of gratitude and thankfulness towards God. So now I literally say some form of those affirmative, thankful prayers, “Jesus, I trust you. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I trust you. Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, you’re awesome. God, I know you got this.”
Those type of statements I make at least 15 to 20 times a day. What am I doing? I’m re-centering myself and practicing the presence of God within me and around me. So I just want to encourage you guys to live a thankful and gratitude based lifestyle through these affirmative, thankful statements and prayers.
I’m going to pray for you. Jesus, thank you. Thank you so much for your presence and your mercy and your love. God, I thank you for a heightened awareness of how good you are, that as they listen to this video, God, that they would have an unction where they can’t help but just utter your name in thanksgiving. God, let this be a lifestyle. Let this seed grow down in them and birth out a beautiful tree, God. And I just thank you, Jesus, for these people. And I just want to encourage you today that God loves you. He cares so deeply about you, and one of the number one things He’s thankful for is you. That’s good news.