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The idea behind this is to reference blessings to see that God in fact has given us some things and put some things in front of us, has given us attributes that I can think about at the start of my prayer to get going in a positive fashion. I might count my blessings not only for the purposes of doing the right thing and being grateful like I’m supposed to be, but more so to see what these blessings might be adding up to, or when bundled together in this way and that way, might mean or point to in more cumulative fashion, collectively pointing to more specific callings, ways in which I might proceed further, or packaged elements that add up in somewhat unique ways to applying to who I am personally and my own individual walk with God. I might ponder that if I seem to have one or two answers, that I could further identify possibly as being part of an overall or bigger package of which I still might need another answer or additional answers to complete the package. What I’m praying about might relate to any number of things. I might say to God that I am praying about this because it relates to me wanting to do this or that. I might ask for additional financial means, because it relates to my desire to travel, which also might relate to additional prayer, meditation and potential for fellowship. God give you gave me a football and then you say to God, now I need a field to play on. Within this, I can give my reasons for why I want something. I might want something because it would be easier for me. There are scriptures relating to this" My yoke is easy and my burden is light". I might be presupposing that the route that I want is harder, when I could be asking for an easier route for me. I remember talking with a teacher in grad school, whose lectures I enjoyed, and she said that giving the lectures was easy for her, and she and others wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t easy. Really what she was talking about was that there was an easy executive or execution of the gift. Using words like easier, better, happier, in your thanksgivings might help give the gradations that help you better locate where God is bringing you. For example, I could God, saying, thank you that this makes me happy, this is easy and this is what's best. Or I could just say, thank you that this makes me happier, that this is easier, that this is better.. By saying happier, easier, ect. we are more focusing not on finality but on direction, or a movement where, yes, I will be happier with this than without this and I can understand that the Lord is taking me in this direction partly for that reason. There is a difference here and I can locate what's happening here by differences Then I might also lump together my thanksgivings, thankgivings that might be seemingly unrelated. I'm thankful Lord for the beautiful sunny day and the big check in the mail. Thanks Lord my favorite baseball team winning and the red color of my hair. Thank you for the help for the nations and the good lunch I had today. By lumping together bigger thanksgivings and smaller thankgivings and seemingly unrelated thanksgivings, in the same prayer sentence, I might gain greater perspectives, for my life, and borrow confidence from some of the thanksgivings I feel closer too now as I also thank the Lord for things that are more distant to me now. I can reflect then as I ask for additional blessings on the specific content and makeup of the blessings I’ve already got and the content of the answers I have already received thankfully. It is a matter of reading into what has already happened and how there might be additional parts and applications into the future with this. You can build into what you can already be thankful for as you ask for additional related blessings to what God has already given you. You could say to you have already given this to me, and thank for that and if you could add to this in that way or this way. You can ask God to add to a blessing you already received. For example, I have a dollar in my pocket, I can thank God for this financial blessing and ask him to add to it. Thanksgiving is not only about where you are, but about movements, movements to where you can and might be able to go with God's grace, abundance and help for you. Again, an example of this is the Red Sea crossing. I can see, looking at say a city or what’s out there, that there is a big wide world out there, and I can do little or nothing to effect it on the natural plane. That big wide world is something I can mostly observe, but not really affect. Just looking at the day itself, there are so many variables out there that are just not controllable by any one individual After all this, I can realize in part, that it is a big wide world out there and I can intersect with this big wide world in the manner of prayer and the manner of answered prayer in ways that can actually be seen. This is pretty dramatic because I do realize that otherwise I just don’t see myself as being able to effect or interject myself into this big wide world. An answer coming towards me as an individual from the big wide world is something that is quite surreal in a way in that this big wide world otherwise has a life of its own, regardless of what any individual wants or needs. In the movie, the Ten Commandments, the Red Sea opens up for individuals to cross. Here is an example of the big wide world intersecting with individuals. These people, in the day and age without cell phones, computers, and high tech gadgets, could do very little to nothing about the big wide world out there. But God intersected that big wide world in a big way for them personally as individuals. Go to the Red Sea today or any sea, and you could contemplate just what that might have been like. But this is also symbolic of what God wants. That Red Sea parted, something happening in the big wide world out there, because God wanted some individuals to escape. In this case, it could be seen as part of a package, based on what happened in Egypt, where plagues were sent on the Egyptians for not letting the people go. All this happened quite a few years ago, so then what are the signs of these time? I can think of a blessing, an answered prayer as maybe opening a whole new world for me, taking me into that big wide world in a new way. Light is coming in on this, I can see and interpret meaning on this. This might be especially true if God communicates with you personally in a big way through nature. Maybe the sunlight moves in a certain way towards you. It is not only that moment, but what that moment symbolizes, that this big wide world is now open to you. You are intersecting with God in the big wide world on a new plane and it is otherwise nearly impossible that this big wide world and you could intersect in ways that you could actually see. An answered prayer might give you what you need personally to open up a whole new world for you, a world that otherwise seemed distant and nearly impossible to get to. And then from this , you can borrow faith and bring it into other areas that you aren't quite up to believing in or for. You might be able to believe God for a rain storm , but not for some physical healing. Borrow from that faith in God's answering you for a certain type of weather, and bring it into that area which has a weaker faith. This can also be thought about in the prayer of intercession. You receive witness from the Holy Spirit on say your prayer for some distant city in the world, and even those you are nowhere near the physical proximity of that city, the witness says your prayer it out there in the big wide world, maybe in a big wide way. You have sent this prayer yonder, for great distances maybe in space and also even in time as you can pray for the distant future. A thankful heart is an open heart. For example, someone gives me free tickets to tonight’s baseball game. I am grateful for the tickets, but I am also open to everything about being at the game, the suspense, the carnival like atmosphere at a gathering of people in a stadium for a fun event, the music that might play between innings, the twilight sun shining on the playing field. When I say to God that I am thankful, I want to try and understand further what the package of what he gives to me might contain and how I am open to this. For example, someone is thanking God in advance for a physical healing they could also pray that I’m open to this healing and how it might come about and the big difference that this healing could make in my life right now and into the future. That is something to reflect on ponder about as well, just being thankful about the difference that the answer makes. And these differences that come into my life because of an answer, is something that also engenders into God's wishes and plans for me personally. This individual answer, does and will make a difference in your life and that difference is something to reflect upon and ponder in and of itself as a matter of thanksgiving. The difference is from being trapped on one side of the Red Sea, and walking in freedom on the other side of the Red Sea and this is something obviously to feel, perceive and rejoice in with a thankful heart. This is also related to the prayer of intercession, we often never quite know what our prayer of intercession did or might do, but they may have made a big difference in what actually did and will happen and our individual and unique prayer played a part, a role, that indeed made a difference, again somewhere out there in that big wide world that otherwise seems to operate so independently from us. Part of this openness involves looking at what you already have received, counting your blessings as more of a running blessing that continually needs to be looked at and discerned with a degree of openness, and seeing how you can be more open to what these blessings are, have been and what they might mean as you head into the future.
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