“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good…” (Psalm 136:1a King James Version)
As I sat stranded on a country road, west of the airport in Indianapolis, my marooned-like situation caused me to focus on thanking God for specific things, small or big things by which He blessed me. Here is what happened. I ended up on this isolated road because I took a way that I thought would have less traffic, less turmoil, and less of a need to merge into busy traffic. As exited to my shortcut, one that lasted for hours, I had a flat tire and was forced to pull over. Just FYI. I dropped my wife off at 7:30 and when it was all said and done, finally I was on my way home, after an emergency repair person changed my tire, at 10:30 a.m. My wife was probably landing in Atlanta before I got home! Side Note: While there is a lesson in my choice-making that deals with just going the way you are supposed to go in the first place, trusting in God, there was another lesson that took center stage. You see, I was moved by my experience to avoid blanket prayers.
Blanket prayers, those times where we just say things like, “Thank you Lord for being so good,” but we fail to list all the ways that He had shown us that the Psalmist was right, “The Lord is good!” We thank Him for blessing us, but don’t mention one blessing particularly. We thank Him for all the things He has done, but we fail to describe even a portion of what He has done for us. We thank Him for family, but we fail to express exactly why we are thankful for specific family members, living or at enjoying life, home with the Lord. We thank Him for the basics, but basically, we just refer to it as all the Lord has provided us under one umbrella, not mentioning or describing of how thankful we are for individual blessings by uttering them one by one. We ask the Lord to bless certain people who are standing in the need of prayer, but we never mention their area of need. Those are just some examples of blanket prayers.
Well, as I sat on the road with no water, no food, no protection, no blanket for warmth as I sat as a sitting duck for people looking for victims. I had no eyeglasses to read the numbers requested by the roadside assistance. As I sat, I started thanking God for all my blessing, thanking Him for protection and safety, thanking Him that I did not lose control and suffer a terrible accident, and thanking Him as I waited for all the multiple blessings I never mention. Being transparent, I realized that at times, I too was guilty of rendering blanket prayers.
I suppose my experience was one of those times where “all things were together for good.” I say that because it is evident that the specific message sent to me, the specific messenger, at this specific time, for a specific purpose, was to relay to you that we need to be more specific in our prayer lives, be more open and expressively conscious of how the Lord has blessed us. And furthermore, the big purpose, I needed to communicate that we should do our best to be more careful not to habitually resort to blanket prayers. Yes, sometimes, circumstances arise where we are in a jam and the conditions we are facing call for breath prayers like “Help Me Jesus (HMJ),” but when it comes to thanking the Lord, we need to name some of many overlooked, taken for granted blessings. I know that we cannot name them all, but we can advance beyond rendering blanket prayers day-after-day! Have a great Friday! Don’t forget to pray! Smile! For an example, observe the specificity in the closing verses from Psalm 107. When you get a chance today, perhaps at lunch, read the whole Psalm. It’s a good example of how to avoid blanket prayers. Be blessed!
“Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world!Tell how he freed you from oppression, then rounded you up from all over the place,from the four winds, from the seven seas. Some of you wandered for years in the desert,looking but not finding a good place to live, half-starved and parched with thirst,staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion. Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God. He got you out in the nick of time; He put your feet on a wonderful roadthat took you straight to a good place to live. So thank God for his marvelous love,for his miracle mercy to the children he loves. He poured great drafts of water down parched throats; the starved and hungry got plenty to eat. (Psalm 107:1-9 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King