Learning to Pray With Thanksgiving

A lot of people, they just live their lives worrying about everything, but I refuse to worry. I'll never go back there again for the rest of my life because I know Him and I know how faithful He is. Contemplating thankfulness in those times is not the first thing that comes to your mind, is it?

As Carter will explain, the only way to know how to pray with thanksgiving is to believe and understand that God is going to answer your prayers. Let's join Carter now to discover more. If anybody ever did, I mean, this guy was shipwrecked. Every time he preached, he crawled up from under a pile of rocks. Somebody was trying to kill him. He was in jail. More often, he was beaten. He was stoned. He was whipped.

He was betrayed. He was like he had a reason to be anxious. But Paul is the guy into whose hand God puts this quill that writes on a parchment to this particular church, and we're reading it where he says, be anxious for nothing. In other words, don't worry about it.

That's what he's saying. Don't worry about where you're going to go. Don't worry about how you're going to get there. Don't worry about what you're going to do when you get there. Don't worry about what your life is going to amount to.

God has a plan for you that's bigger than you can even think or imagine. So be anxious for nothing. Then in itself, that's four words we could focus on for the rest of our Christian life and try to get to the bottom of that, because you and I know how hard it is not to be anxious about anything.

We spend half of our life, more than half of our life. You know, I came from a home of worriers. My mother was a worrier. She worried if she had nothing to worry about. That's how much she worried. She just worried about everything. She used to say, don't tell me worrying doesn't do any good.

None of the things I worry about ever happen. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So there's just something about praying with thanksgiving. The end result of that, of not being anxious, of having a heart that just really trusts in God, is a peace which passes understanding.

In other words, it's not based on anything we smell, taste, think, feel, know, see. It's something that's based on a confidence in God. And when people look at those of us who have this confidence in God, it passes their understanding, in other words, as much as it passes ours. There has to be a reason for this, just like the king who saw the fourth man in the fire when he threw three Hebrew boys into the fire for their defiance in a sense of refusing to bow down to an idol. And he saw a fourth man, so he saw a peace as they walked in the fire, and I'm assuming they're praising God in that fire. They're just kind of walking through the flames. The smoke is not touching them, the fire is not burning them, and the king sees a fourth man. There's something happening here that passes understanding. And when you and I have confidence in God, there's this presence of God that people see even before we understand it or know it.

They see something in us. Now, Jesus himself, I want to just read to you his words in Luke chapter 12. Let me just read it to you, beginning at verse 22. I want you just to listen with your heart.

Listen with the deepest part of your heart. Then he said to his disciples, Therefore I say to you, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. In other words, don't live your life worried about these things. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? I remember when the Lord was leading me to leave my career and to pastor this little group of Christian people that were meeting in a hotel who were offering me a salary that didn't even pay for my electrical bill.

That's how low that salary was going to be. In the natural, it was foolishness, but yet in my heart, I felt drawn by God. But I'm not going to suggest there wasn't a battle. I'm not going to suggest to you that I wasn't concerned or worried about my children, about how I'm going to clothe them, how I'm going to feed them, where we're going to live, and how are we going to pay our bills.

That's just kind of a natural part of humanness. I remember I was preaching one Sunday to this little group of people while I was still a police officer in the city of Ottawa, Canada. As I was preaching, now I was actually preaching on these verses. I was preaching on give your all to God, follow God, walk with God. I was in the battle of my life because I'm preaching something that I'm in the throes of wondering whether I'm going to live it myself.

It was wintertime, and as I was preaching, I was standing in front of a window in this hotel that we were having church in. I looked out, and there was about four or five little brown sparrows, and they were in the driveway, and it was snow. A truck had plowed it, and they're pecking at the ground. I can't see what they're eating, but they've got to be eating something because they're all pecking at the ground. This verse immediately came into my mind.

Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? Sometimes God's trying to give us comfort. We just kind of push it out of our mind.

Yeah, that's nice, and we just go back to our message. As I was preaching, and I'm still exhorting the people to live for God, give their all to God, I looked out the window again, and there are those four birds again, or five birds, and they're all pecking at the same spot, and I still can't see what they're eating. Again, the Lord said to me, are you not worth more than these birds?

It's amazing. God was saying, I don't want you to worry about what your future is going to be, and how you're going to feed your children, and where you're going to live, and the things that you're going to have. And he goes on to say, in which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? In other words, by all of your worry, can you make yourself any taller?

Can you make yourself bigger than you are? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. You know, I love the fact that he spoke so simply to us. He said, just take a look at the flowers. He said, I dress them, and look at how they look.

They're not worried about it. They just let me do what I do, and I'm faithful to them. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

And do not seek what you should eat, or what you should drink, or have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. But seek, and I like what in the Gospel of Matthew it says first, but in Luke it just says, seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. This has been one of the verses of my life as a believer in Jesus Christ. When our house burnt down, when we went into full-time ministry, and we lost everything, and we had to stay at the home of another pastor, and we didn't even have clothes for our children, and we didn't have a place to live. And I remember I went out, I used to jog in those days, and I went out for a run one January morning, and I quoted this verse back to God. I said, Lord, you told me that if I sought first your kingdom and your righteousness, that you would add all these things to me. So I'm just going to take you at your word. I'm just going to go and jog.

I can't worry about it because I can't change the situation, but I'm going to trust you to be who you say you are to me. And most of you know the story that within just a short season, so much provision came in from so many unexpected places that we eventually were able to purchase a brand new home outright. We paid cash for it, all new furniture, we got all new clothes for our children, and I even got a pair of skates. I'm a Canadian, so I got a pair of skates that I've always wanted, and I could never afford them.

And as recently, I still had them in my garage, even recently, until I gave them away to somebody. And he said, do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's the pleasure of God. He's not a reluctant God. He didn't go to the cross and die for you and go back to heaven just to fold his arms and just kind of watch and see how you're going to make out in life. No, he died to be God to you and to me. He died for those that are enlightened. He died, the Scripture says, so you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 10, verse 23 says, don't cast away your confidence in one part of the Scripture, he says, but in verse 23, he said, he who promised is faithful.

Now, I stand before you. I've been saved 43 or four years now, and I can tell you, God has been faithful through flood, through fire, through trial, through sickness, through difficulty, through sorrow, through mountaintop, through times of excitement, times of despair, all of these times that came our way. God has been faithful. And I've come to the point in life, thank God, that I'm not worried about what I'm going to wear or where I'm going to live or what I'm going to eat.

Obviously, I'm not worried about what I'm going to eat. I got enough here to keep me for about a good 50, 60 days if all else fails. But I could tell you over the years that God has been faithful.

God has been faithful. I remember one time in our farmhouse, we ran out of water. Actually, iron got into our well and ruined the water supply, and it would be detrimental to our health. We didn't have any money.

We had nothing. And I remember bringing my little kids, Pastor Teresa and the little kids into the room, and I opened the Bible, and I showed them the promise. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

I also showed them in James. He said, you know, if you ask for something to consume it on your lusts, you won't receive anything from the Lord. And I said, so this is not for our lusts. God knows we need water, and we don't have the money. The contractor said it was going to cost $3,000 to dig a brand new well and connect it to the house. I said, but I'm going to have him do it anyway because we need water, and God knows we need water, and he's going to provide. All these things. And I've always held to that.

I'm seeking first the kingdom of God, his promises that he would provide. So we had the contractor come in, and he dug a new well, and he hit this beautiful vein of crystal clear cold water. It was absolutely amazing. Connected it to the house, and the day before the invoice for it was due to arrive, I went to the mailbox, and there was a card in the mailbox from my father. I thought that was strange, so I opened the card, and he said, your grandmother, when she died, left money for your education, and we didn't use it all for your education. And so this is what was left, and it was a check for $3,000 in the mail.

Now listen, the bill came to about $2,981, so we had enough left to go for a large all-dressed pizza as a family and celebrate after paying for the water supply. I remember when we went into full-time ministry. I could be here all night telling you about the faithfulness of God, but these were kind of the early days. And God's goodness, he builds us in the early days so we can trust him for the bigger days. You know, I'm going to be one day on a field in a war-torn area of the world more than one time, and I'm going to have to have faith so he doesn't take you from zero to that kind of faith.

He starts building our confidence in him. For those that are listening online, you start at the beginning and let God prove to you how faithful he is and how faithful he will be. And before you know it, you'll be praying with thanksgiving.

You'll be praying because the only way I know how to pray with thanksgiving is you know that God is going to answer your prayer. And I remember thinking when I went into full-time ministry and we started taking people into our house on top of this. We took in a lady with her two children who had come back to the Lord and another pastor to pastor a group of French-speaking people that began to attend the church. And there was just all kinds of people, a principal and his wife, and there were three kids, I think it was. We had a full house, I'll tell you.

One winter we had 17 people. And I remember thinking, we can't even feed ourselves. How are we going to feed these people? But God, again, you said, seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. And I've just had the secret joy and so did Pastor Theresa of just letting him do a miracle one more time. And I remember wondering, we've got to somehow get food for all these people and one day I get a knock on my door and it's a farmer. And he's a Christian man and he said, the Lord spoke to me and told me to fill your freezer with beef and fill it with the best of beef, fillet. And he said, no, for real.

No, no, it gets even better. And he said, and as soon as it starts to get down, every time it gets down, you call me and I'll fill it again. And when it gets down, you call me and I'll fill it again. And he was always faithful. And then I remember the pastor came to pastor the French church.

We had a van where we picked up kids and took them to church on Sunday. He shows up one day and the whole van, the whole minibus is full of grapefruit and it's full of bread. And he said, well, I was at this food bank and they're just overflowing.

They don't know what to do with all the food. And they said, we don't want this to spoil. So he said, I'll take it. You're talking like we had about, we had to have at least a thousand grapefruit. And I remember thinking, what are we going to do with a thousand grapefruit?

He said, I don't know. He said, it seemed a shame to waste it. So we started knocking on doors and asking people if they wanted grapefruit in the area. And everybody was really glad and the poor know the poor. Long story short, we had all the fruit and bread we ever needed. We had way more than we ever needed. And we started feeding families. And we ended up, by the time we left, we were feeding 237 families in the community. By the goodness of our God.

By the grace of our God. The provision of God. That's why David could say, my cup overflows. It didn't just fill my cup in the presence of my enemies or in my need.

But he filled that cup so much that it was overflowing. And we had so much food, we had to start giving it away. And we ended up getting a storage facility and other people found out about it. And then a huge food bank in the city of Ottawa contacted us and said, would you be interested in being our Eastern Division?

Which means we could have got an attractor trailer load full of food every week and brought it out. It's just amazing. There's no end to what God can do if we will seek him first and his kingdom and let all these things be added unto us. Now I've been all over the world. I've seen God do. You know the story, many of you. I've seen him. If you haven't, it's all in a book called It's Time to Pray. And I've seen God stop civil war. I've stood in front of governments. I've been in the homes of prime ministers and leaders and presidents.

I've been in so many places throughout the world. I've just seen God do what only God can do. And there's certain miracles that really stick in your mind.

And some of them are fading and one though is as fresh as yesterday. And it's called the Great Spaghetti Miracle that happened in our life. And I'm going to ask Pastor Teresa to come and share about this story.

And she'll need her microphone over there on the other side. Now this was a miracle of miracles. I've read about this in scripture in the Old Testament, but I've lived to see it. I've lived to see this miracle happen.

Well, we never get tired of telling this story, but we were young in the faith. And it was before the freezer full of beef. And I put a pound of hamburger on the counter. And I went about 300 yards down the road to my mom's house. And while I was there, someone said to me, Who's that in your driveway? So I look over and it was a car I didn't recognize. So I walked back and it was a family of five. And they had, when Pastor Carter and I had been ministering in Eastern Canada, hundreds of miles away, we said, Look, if you ever are in the area, stop by.

And they did. And so that was good. Family of five. We're a family of five. That's all right.

I know how to thin a sauce with the best of them. So that was no problem. But when a short while later, I heard a motorcycle in the driveway. And lo and behold, it was Pastor Carter's brother and a friend. And they were motoring across Canada.

And they never visit us their whole married life. And he just shows up and it's like, Wow, that's very cool. Come on in. So welcoming everybody in, when literally I heard another car in the driveway. And I look out and this was a family of seven. They had five children. And they were a church family. And I knew for them to be visiting us at suppertime.

I knew that was very deliberate. And I knew that they needed to be at our house. So I welcomed them in. And by this time, you can barely navigate across the kitchen. There's so many people in there. When Pastor Carter comes home, and yes, he has my sister and her son with him.

They just traveled an hour to get there. And I had this one pound of spaghetti. And I remember just like the Lord said to me, don't look in the pot. Don't look in the pot.

And just put a bright smile on. And I just kept, when it came to supper, I just kept ladling out. I just kept pouring out, pouring out, pouring out. I couldn't believe it.

I was getting more excited. And by the end of it, there was spaghetti to spare. It was an absolute miracle. It was a miracle. And it was my first known miracle.

We were very young in ministry. And he said, God, the promise that the Lord will provide was so true and so real. And every one of those people I realized were guided to our house. And I couldn't provide for them. We couldn't provide, but God provided.

And because they were brought to us unannounced, but this was of the Lord. And these are things like when you have an open home, an open heart, an open life, God will bring the people that need to come into your life and He will supply your needs. And when I'm telling you, when a miracle happens in your own kitchen, when a miracle happens through the most mundane of ways, and yet He miraculously provides, you are forever changed.

So please don't back up. God, if you seek first the kingdom of God, everything you and I need to serve Him and one another and our generation will be supernaturally provided again and again and again. Amen. Praise God. I just remember being in the kitchen and the Lord spoke to both of us, don't look in the pot, just keep serving. And she was generously serving this meat sauce.

And I'm kind of of the mind of just, could you just hold back and just maybe a little less. She's generously putting it and big plates of spaghetti. And we fed, I don't know, 20, 24 people, whatever it was, and there were leftovers. Truly amazing. I mean, only God could have done that. It was one pound of hamburger with a little can of tomato sauce and maybe a couple of extra things, but it could never have fed that many people.

There was no chance. And this is the God that we serve. And I'm just so thankful today that the God of the big things is also the God of the little things, right? He sees our need. And for many, you need God to be with you in a big way and some in a small way.

But I tell you from experience, He will not fail you. And if you will pray with thanksgiving, be anxious for nothing, as the scripture says, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. So here's how you pray. God, thank you.

Thank you. That when my supply is short, yours isn't. Thank you, Lord, that when I run out of love, you don't. And your supply of love will start pouring through me.

When I only got a pound, you got tons of love. So you'll just keep pouring love through me when my supply is gone. When my patience is gone, yours is everlasting. And you will start pouring through my life. And when my words of kindness are gone, yours are still there.

And you got more words in your vocabulary than the world can contain. And so, Lord, I just yield my body as that pot yielded itself to that spaghetti sauce. I yield my body to you, Lord, and I just ask you to be God and prove yourself to be God. And when you allow Him to prove Himself to be God in the small things, then you start moving to the bigger things throughout life. And you might find yourself in a place where you'd need an absolute miracle of God.

I have over the course of my life. But you'll remember the spaghetti, you understand? You'll remember the water. You'll remember the beef in the freezer. You'll remember how God never failed.

You'll remember the van of bread and grapefruit showing up and yet so much you had to start giving to the poor. You'll remember how God does things. And you'll find that He's lavishly generous. He's lavishly generous. Fear not, little flock, Jesus said, it is your Father's delight to give you the kingdom.

It's in His heart to give it to you. And so we don't draw back. And I refuse to live in an anxious place.

A lot of people, they just live their lives worrying about everything, but I refuse to worry. I'll never go back there again for the rest of my life because I know Him and I know how faithful He is. And whatever He asks me to do, that's what I will do. That's been the theme of my life. I'll do God what you ask me to do. I don't have to worry about it.

You will supply everything that I need. So Father, to celebrate with thanksgiving what you did for us on the cross, to celebrate the fact that we have become a family, to celebrate the fact that even when life throws us a curve, God, Lord, we are still able to find your purpose in it. And you still promise to give us the strength, my God, to navigate the difficult places.

We think of the apostle Paul who said, be anxious for nothing. And yet the man had literally gone through hell on earth, but yet there was a dividing joy and a trust in Him, God, that he could pray with thanksgiving. So I ask you, Lord, that you would enable us to pray with thanksgiving. You would enable us to have grateful hearts and to believe you for the supply that we're all going to need in the situations we find ourselves in.

Thank you that you made it all available at the cross, in Jesus' name. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.