“Be joyful always, pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ.”

The God we are worshipping today is the Loving Father who welcomes His children. Today our Father wants us to come home, to His heart, for Thanksgiving.

He has His eye on you, right now, and is excited that you are here. We talk to Him with joy and confidence because we know our Father loves to hear our voice, has something to say to us and is interested in what we have to say.

Some of us could rattle on all day and still not have mentioned everything we are thankful for. For others of us, we want to be thankful, but our lives are in a season of sadness.

Let me risk saying this, if we can think of nothing else to be thankful for we can be thankful that God wants to enter into a conversation with us. We call it prayer.

I will lead us. When I pause, it will be for you to listen quietly to God or quietly tell him what is on your heart. If at any time during the prayer you want to stand up as a way of declaring this is true for me, then do that. At the end I will say Amen, but it won’t be the end of our chance to talk to God. He will be listening for our voice all day.

Pray with me. Father, We want to begin by thanking you that because of Jesus we can claim a family relationship with you. You are our Father, we are your children, and today we want to say, “Thank You.”

Thank you that you are a Father who waits for us children to come home, loves to hear our voices and loves for us to have time with you. We want to tell you right now that we are thankful that Jesus died and rose again so we can run to you with the freedom of a loved child.

We thank you that we are welcome to bring our friends home for Thanksgiving. We want to name those who we long to introduce to you and ask that by your Holy Spirit they will choose to accept your invitation to become family.

Thank you that we can never bring anything to you that is too hard for you. You have power over our fears, our finances, our health, and our relationships. We bring to you now the things that concern us and ask you to help us release these things to you.

We pray that you would open our eyes so that we can see your involvement in our lives, open our ears so we can hear your voice and open our hearts so that we can love.  May our lives be so stunning that people will say, “Look at how those ordinary people love each other. The only explanation can be that they have been with Jesus.” Bring to mind one unexpected act of love that we can do today that will cause our family and friends to recognize you.

We thank you that you are a promise keeping God. We thank you that you finish what you start, that you, who have begun a good work in us and in those we love, will not give up. Thank you that you are waiting at the front door of your home, your heart, waiting to run to us and welcome us home for Thanksgiving.

We acknowledge that all of this is true because of the love of our Heavenly Father, the rescuing work of Jesus and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

We say, Amen, now, but this is not the end of our prayer. Thank you that you will be listening for our voice all day. Remind us, though the day, to talk to you and listen for you. May you, most Holy God have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day because your family is home and your house is filled with unity and joy.