Count Every Blessing | Prayer 101 (Ep. 2)

Welcome to part two in our series about how to pray. Last week we talked about the Lord's Prayer. We used it as the prayer to start our day with every day. The Lord's Prayer is the prayer that Jesus prayed. It's how He taught us to pray. Pretty simple and amazing and powerful. Well, today we're gonna get even more simple. See, part two is about prayers of praise. Old Testament, New Testament, people across ages, people across geographies, across ethnicities, everybody prays prayers of praise. There's even parts in the Bible where we are commanded to praise. What's the deal with praise? Why is it such a big deal? It's such a big deal because it recognizes a powerful and important truth that is incredibly easy to miss in life. This truth is captured in James 1 verse 17. It says, See, the simple truth of life is that every good gift comes from God, and He doesn't change. It's not like some days He gives good gifts, and so on those days the good things are from Him, but on other days He doesn't give good gifts, so on those days if there's good stuff, it came from another source. No, the only source of goodness, the only source of good gifts is God. Now, if you embrace this fact in your life, you will automatically do one thing. You will praise Him. Every day at the end of my day, I have a rhythm of praying this prayer. God, everything good that happened in my day, everything good that I experienced, it's from You. And I will tangibly force myself to remember everything good,

down to what did I have for lunch. Today, by the way, I had a Chick-fil-A sandwich and fries. It was amazing. And so, yes, God, thank You for the good gift of my lunch. If it was good, see, it's from God. You can do this with your day. You can just think back and reflect on what are the good things you experienced. Did you have a good car that got you to work? Well, that's a gift from God. That car, the commute, the money to buy the gas, that's from God. Do you like the place you live? That's from God. Do you have a comfortable mattress? That's from God. Do you have great friends? That's from God. Every good gift comes from Him. And I'm telling you, there is power in concluding your day, reflecting backwards and just saying, thanks, God, you are so good. You are such a good Father. Everything good I experienced today came from you. This is the rhythm that we have as a family. Every single day, at the end of our day, we pray together as a family. Sarah and I get the kids together. We've been doing this since they were tiny. By the way, they're still pretty tiny. Get them together and they can understand it. We say, listen, kids, everything good comes from God.

We teach them this verse, James 1, 17. So we say, did anything good happen today? And they name off the good stuff. And then we just collectively say, thank you, God, for it. And they'll say thanks to God for all kinds of things. It's super fun. They'll thank God for their friends. They'll thank God for, we play Mario Kart together as a family. They'll thank God for winning Mario Kart because that felt good to them. And we say, yes, that's right, that's from God. Everything good is from God. It's a powerful and effective way to do this weird thing called praise. So my challenge to you is what good things have you experienced today? Maybe this is the beginning of the day when you're watching this. If that's true, I want you to catalog the good things that happened today. Just open a note in your phone or find a scrap piece of paper and just take note of everything good you experienced. And at the end of the day, before you go to sleep, thank God for them. If you're watching this at the end of the day, you don't have to have taken a note. You can just remember back on your day and say, thank you, God.

If you'll do that today, you'll be entering into one of the most powerful streams of prayer in the entire Bible, the power of the prayer of praise. Let's do this together right now. I'm gonna invite you to pray with me and think about all the good things that we've experienced today and just say thanks to God. I'm gonna actually think through the actual things that I've experienced in my life today. I'll pray and say thanks first, and then I'm gonna pause. and give you a bit of time to think about those things for your world for your life and for you to say Thank you God. Let's pray together right now God I am so thankful for you. I first want to say out loud that Everything good in my life everything big everything small every good thing is from you. Thank you God Would you help me remember those things right now? The first category that I'm thinking about right now Is about my home the place that God give me It's not a home. I have because I earned it. It's a place that God gave me as a good gift So father, I just want to say thank you for my home It's not a place that I deserve. It's a place that you've gifted me with. Thank you for my warm bed Thank you for my comfortable chair. I can sit in in the morning Thank you for my stove that worked to boil my water to make my coffee with Thank you God for this place you've given me to live it's a good gift. I'm so thankful for that right now You might want to say the same thing to God think about the place that you live That God has given you and just say thank you Father the second thing I think about are the people you've put in my life The people that are good gifts from you that I didn't do anything to earn or deserve on my own You've just put them in my life. Thank you for Sarah

Thank you for my kids Thank you for my incredible teammates at work who I get to interact with I get to have fun with God, thank you for the friends. You've put in my life The guys that are coming over tonight to hang out to I know encourage me and Just spend time together guys. Thank you for the people you've put in my life Right now. Why don't you say thanks to God for the good gifts of the people? He's put in your life You Father the next thing I think about are all of the things I have in my life That aren't things that I need. They're just things that I wanted that you have so generously Given me I think about this workshop that we're in and all of the tools you've given me to build stuff You've wired me to make and to create and you've given me the tools to do that. I'm so thankful For that good gift from you Right now I want you to think about the things in your life Things that just bring you joy the gifts in your life that God has given you Maybe just to make you smile You Father the next thing I think about are all of the moments of joy You've given me the small moments of joy that just add up to a really good gift Thank you for the moment that my daughter Gracie came downstairs this morning climbed to my lap and gave me a hug Thank you for the moment of joy the joke that me and Eli shared over breakfast Thank you for the laughs I've had with work teammates today Thank you for my lime cucumber Gatorade, which is a super weird flavor, but it's perfect for me. It's delicious God, thank you for the small moments of joy every single one of those I know was a good gift you intentionally planned and gave to me. Thank you. I Want you right now to think about the small moments of joy you've experienced in your day Maybe these are moments that you've never said. Thanks to God before but each of them is a gift He intentionally planned and made for you Thank him for them, right? Amen Friends you just entered into one of the most powerful streams of prayer in the entire Bible

The prayer of praise. This is something I encourage you to do I even challenge you to do throughout the rest of your week If you do you will experience a depth of gratitude and joy that nothing else will match