A prayer of thanksgiving to God

(by Pastor Rick Warren)

A Prayer of Thanksgiving to God

"Because of Jesus, I now can live a life of joy, purpose, peace, and love."

God, I have so much joy right now, knowing that you decided to send Jesus to earth so I could be saved from a life of hopelessness and sin and be a peacemaker for you. I recognize in this moment that you saved my life when you sent Jesus, and that because of Jesus, I now can live a life of joy, purpose, peace, and love. I hold onto that hope today. When I look at the world around me, I see so many people who are struggling with stressful, meaningless, chaotic lives without loving, caring relationships. That was my life before you saved me. To say I am grateful doesn't begin to express what I am feeling. I just know I have a sense of meaning and peace I have never had before and could never get on my own strength - and I am full of amazing happiness.
I feel like celebrating right now, knowing that I am now on your side, instead of being at war with you. I know that with you I will never again be lost and alone. I am a new person today, and I recognize what I have just been given. I pray that, as I continue to grow spiritually every day, I will come to understand everything you have just accomplished in my life. By faith, I know I can trust you to be in my life today - and every day. I know I can count on you when things get tough, and knowing I will spend eternity in your presence gives me such hope!

Thank you, Jesus, for the peace you have given me. I pray you will use me as an instrument of that peace so I can help my family, friends, and the world in which I live. I feel so different right now, knowing that you and I are now OK, knowing I am on the road to a deeper understanding of what it means to live for an audience of one. I ask you to help me pray when I become upset so that I will have your peace in any situation I face - good or bad. Help me to get ready to help other people as others have already helped me. I want to make a difference in this world, and I want to help everyone I meet have the same hope I now have. I can't do this alone, so I ask you to make me a peacemaker.

Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. And thank you for giving me a peace I have never known before. May everything I do, from this day on, reflect these same qualities as I tell others what you just did for me. I am full of anticipation at the kind of life I can now live.
I love you, Jesus!

Note:
It's not easy to have peace all the time. Most times, we feel angry, frustrated, injustice, wronged, hurt, tired, unfairly treated, misunderstood or sick. So this prayer comes at a right time to me.

This Christmas, a fellow small group member's elderly mom was baptised. She had been diagnosed with cancer at the liver (we found out when we're at the airport in Singapore, returning back to Miri on the same flight, in Oct). The doctors were not sure where it started from. With a poor prognosis, she wanted to seek the truth and peace. Our Pastor Law prayed for her, fellow small group members prayed, and the church prayed. She accepted Christ. Then our small group leader Sally taught her from the bible. Even the old learn new things.

God is at work around us, He seeks us.

Assistant Pastor Connie shared in her Christmas sermon yesterday that her Father in law died in an accident while at work in South Africa. He had been there for only six months out of a year's work stint. Her husband and her had been praying for the father. Before he left for South Africa, they gave him a bible. He said he will try to read it.

When he died, they were devastated. They also wonder if he had been saved. They couldn't bear to think that he was not. They received news from an aunty in Australia. She called to say that the father had called her and when she asked him to repeat the sinner's prayer after her, he did so. She also encouraged him to be baptised. He said he will do so next year when he returns back from South Africa and wanted to be baptised with his grandchild...Pastor Connie is due to deliver a baby girl in May.

I know many tears rolled yesterday morning. Tinge of sadness and yet with an indescribable joy.

Christmas is indeed joyous.