There is a tendency in our land, to shift our attention from Thanksgiving to Christmas immediately following our day of Thanks. Commercialism hopes we will follow that leading. (Consider swimming against that flow.) It is so important to our Christian walk to be "grateful" people. Revelation 11:17-18 speaks of those who give "thanks" with "reverence", which some have called; "an attitude of gratitude". Consider if you will; making a gratitude list rather than a Christmas wish list in these days leading to Christmas. Pray with thanksgiving!

Matthew chapter five uses two identical phrases to share a thought; "you have heard that it was said" followed by "eye for an eye" and "hate your enemies", in verses 38 and 43. Our society agrees with those statements. In each place those words are followed with, "But I tell you". Jesus has some radical thoughts about such things. He said in verse (44), "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (45) that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." We are to have enemies on our prayer list. We are not to have a condemnation list. If we obey, we will be considered sons-daughters of the Father. Who is on your prayer list?

Jesus asked his disciples to "go wait" as he ascended into heaven. They construed that to mean pray-n-wait for the Holy Spirit. They did. The church continued to pray-n-wait, as we find in Acts 12, the believers were in pray-n-wait mode. Peter had been arrested and was imprisoned. While the were in pray-n-wait mode, Peter was released from prison, not by the warden, and he came to prayer meeting. Rhoda answered the door and heard Peter's voice but did not admit him. Why? Perhaps because the church was not finished praying for him. So how could he possibly be at the door? May God surprise you in prayer.

In a recent meeting, a question was posed to those in attendance. "What are you praying about and who are you praying for?" My heartfelt response was; "two prodigal grandchildren in need of Christ's transforming power. How would you answer that question?