F-A-C-T-S Prayer Guide: Thanksgiving and Supplication (Bible Study with Hank Hanegraaff)

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 broadcast and the 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘜𝘯𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 podcast, completes the trek through the F-A-C-T-S Prayer Guide: Faith. Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. Supplication. Scripture exhorts us to “enter his gates with thanksgiving.” Failure to do so is the stuff of pagan babblings and carnal Christianity. Pagans, said Paul, know about God, but “they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.” Carnal Christians likewise fail to thank God daily for his many blessings. They suffer from what might best be described as selective memories. They are prone to forget the blessings of yesterday as they thanklessly barrage the throne of grace with new requests every day. Oh, may we not follow in their path. May you and I, instead, be one of ten. As he was on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus encountered ten men suffering the ravages of leprosy. “They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’” Having great compassion for their condition, Jesus healed them all. Yet only one of ten, upon recognizing his healing, “threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” Immediately Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” I personally am tremendously convicted even as I write these words. How many times has God answered my prayers? Directly! Specifically! Yet how few times I have thanked him! Said Paul, we are to “rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” As with faith, adoration, and confession, the Psalms are a rich reservoir for daily prayers of thanksgiving. While many psalms are tremendous templates for thanksgiving, Psalm 118 provides a particularly powerful treasury for giving thanks. Supplication. It is proper and right that our supplications tend toward the end rather than beginning of our prayers. For it is only in the context of a relationship with God that our requests make any sense at all. The purpose of supplication is not to pressure God into providing us with provisions and pleasures, but rather to conform us to his purposes. As we read in 1 John 5:14–15, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we have asked of him.” Note carefully the emphasis on the words “according to his will.”

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