God answers prayer, but He doesn’t answer complaints. Have you ever woke up and just started focusing on your problems and you were full of complaints? When I do this, I realize I am wasting time that could have been used for prayer by murmuring about and focusing on everything I thought was wrong in my life. I should have been focusing on all the ways God has blessed me and praying about my problems with thanksgiving for all of the good things He has done for me.
God delights in answering our prayers, and prayer is one of our greatest privileges. It is not an obligation, but an amazing honor. Instead of complaining as our first response to a problem, we should immediately pray. What I have realized, when I complain it opens a door for the devil to work in my life, but prayer with thanksgiving opens a door for God to work in my life.
Praying with thanksgiving doesn’t simply mean thanking God during the prayer but praying from the platform of a thankful life. If we grumple and complain all week and then suddenly want to pray that God will help us with a problem that arises, we may find ourselves not getting the help we desire. God is merciful, and He frequently helps us even though we don’t deserve it, but we do need to realize that complaining is dangerous and that is offensive to Him. Asking God for what we want without thanking HIm for what we have reveals a heart that is not right before Him, perhaps a selfish or greedy heart. A heart without gratitude is very unattractive to God.
Scripture tells us to enter his gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). To come into His presence with praise is to declare His goodness, magnify His name, and boast, rave about, and speak well of Him. It is important for us to talk about God’s goodness as often as we can and to thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will do in our lives.
