Anticipatory Thanks

Intercessory prayer is a bit of a conundrum. If “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Mt 6:8),” why do we need to ask? Yes, intercessory prayer can remind us of our reliance on God for all things, which fosters humility. However, it also seems to focus our attention on what we lack and implies an uncertainty that God will provide unless we remind him of our needs. As demonstrated by the story of the Israelites who bemoaned the seeming absence of water and food in the desert, a lack of trust that God will provide is damaging to our relationship with God.

Instead of asking God to give us what we need, a different approach is thank God in advance for meeting our needs—which, incidentally, also fosters humility as we recognize that all gifts come from God. Thus, instead of praying that a friend’s house would sell, I thanked God for sending the perfect buyer for the house. Instead of praying for healing for a friend’s jaw pain, I thanked God for relieving her pain. And within the past two weeks, a contract was placed on the house and an abscessed wisdom tooth was diagnosed and removed.

Is thanking God in advance for gifts received an attempt to manipulate God into giving us what we want? I don’t think so. God’s timing and God’s manner of responding to our needs are still in God’s hands. However, anticipatory thanks signals trust that God knows us intimately, knows what we need on our path, and will provide it, instilling in us a stance of gratitude. What would happen at the Mount if we stopped asking God to send us new community members and instead thanked God for sending new members to join us? At the very least, I believe it would help diminish our worry about the future, which is in God’s hands anyway—thanks be to God!