Ask but Don't Forget To Thank

I have been gone for the last week, no email, no facebook. It has been wonderful, but now I have to sift through everything and see if I missed anything important. For a couple years now I have been getting a daily verse emailed to me. Sometimes I read them and really soak them in and sometimes I just glance at them like they are any other email. Today I had all of last weeks verses to read, so I was just glancing at them but this one just hit me.

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." -Philippians 4:6

Now, this is one of the few verses I memorized as a kid, so I feel like I know it really well. But today God showed me something new. Just goes to show that God's word is alive.

 I often feel odd asking God for things. He is the God of the universe, what right do I have to ask him for anything? I have slowly been learning this year that is it by grace that God WANTS us to ask Him for things. He wants us to have the desires of our hearts. It helps me to think of the things my own father wants me to have. Just like my father on earth, God wants me to have what I desire in life. Reading this verse this morning hit me in a new way. Don't worry, ask God for anything, but don't forget to THANK him for what he has already done.

I am reminded of the times that we feel like nothing is going right and life just sucks. In those times we often ask God a lot of things, but in those times let us not forget to thank him for all the amazing things he has done before this time when you feel like nothing is going right.