Thanking God In Advance

Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Having grown up in rural southwestern Missouri, a love for the outdoors and a passion for nature are instilled within me. I will find any excuse I can to enjoy what God has created, and some of my favorite outdoor hobbies include hiking and gardening.

From an early age, I developed a deep passion for hunting. Chasing whitetails in the fall and turkeys in the spring has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. 

I believe God is able to perfectly unite our passions with His Word to cultivate and mould us into who He has called us to be. Sitting in a tree stand waiting for a big mature whitetail buck to come past me, or methodically working through an acorn flat trying to catch up with a gobbling spring turkey have taught me countless lessons. 

One of the most profound I have taken with me is the importance of thanksgiving. Thankfulness is a powerful weapon in the arsenal of the believer. And it involves so much more than thanking Him when we receive things or being thankful for what we have; it is much deeper than that.

Paul, in Philippians 4:6, encourages us to thank God in advance, acting as though we’ve already received what we’re asking for. This shifts our perspective from hope to expectation, where faith begins to grow. Expectation strengthens our faith, and faith is the highway on which God moves.

Today, I want to challenge you to change the way you pray. Instead of simply asking God for your needs, start thanking Him as though He’s already answered. This shift in mindset will transform your prayers.

The Faith Buck

Have you ever been hunting and stepped out of your vehicle knowing that today was your day, and then have it all come together? I hadn’t done so until November 14th of 2013. Let me give you some backstory.

My family and I had moved to Iowa back in January of that year, and I had scheduled my vacation from November 6th-16th. Ten days devoted to chasing thick-necked, heavy-racked Iowa whitetails. Now don’t get me wrong, I hunt whenever I can, but being a pastor, my schedule is pretty tied up all the time except during vacation, and I could not wait for it to come around this year. I had imaginations of spending almost all day every day in a tree stand waiting for a lovesick Iowa buck to walk into bow range. Well, to be honest, it did not quite happen as I had hoped.

We found out in the middle of October that my wife was pregnant with baby Norman number three. We were beyond excited; however, my wife does not have easy pregnancies. Sparing you the gross details of how sick she gets, let’s just say the height of her sickness peaked on, you guessed it, November 6th.

My in-laws had pretty much moved in with us to help with her and the boys because I quickly realized I could not work, clean, cook, wash, drop kids off at school, do laundry, and take care of my wife who had been in and out of the hospital all on my own. So needless to say, vacation was not going to be quite what I had expected, and I was OK with that because there are things in life more important than hunting.

But on the afternoon of November 14th, my wife insisted I take one last opportunity to go out. My father-in-law had the boys, so I jumped at the chance. As I parked the truck and started my half-mile walk to the stand, the Lord reminded me of this very verse in Philippians 4:6 that we studied today. 

He reminded me that I should be thankful for the things I am believing for even if I have yet to receive them. So right in the middle of the cut cornfield, I raised my hands and said, “Father, I thank you for the buck I am receiving tonight.” I went on my way to the stand, got set up, and turned my camera on (I film all my hunts). I even told the camera, “You are going to see me harvest my buck tonight because I thanked God for it.”

Sure enough, after an eventful afternoon full of buck movement and passing some younger ones, I had a beautiful ten-point buck working a scrape sixty-five yards away through the timber. After a few short grunts, I caught his attention. He lowered his head, pinned his ears back, and started walking heavy-footed to my location. Stopping behind a big cedar tree, he turned and stepped out broadside at forty yards. I stopped him in my only shooting lane and settled my pin.

 Squeezing the trigger on my release, I watched my lighted nock fly through the air, lodging in the off-side shoulder of my first Iowa buck. After a short blood trail, I then began to praise God for the buck I had received as I walked through the cornfield to start my hunt.

So again, I want to truly encourage you to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).