{You’re reading the second post in a 30 day series we’re calling The Thankful 30: A Month-Long Celebration of Gratitude. Catch up on every post here. Receive every day’s post in your inbox here.}
I find it ironic that November, the so-called month of gratitude and thanksgiving, comes immediately on the heels of Halloween—a day and night where we dress up as something we’re not to go around getting candy from people we don’t know. Good thing we have those masks to disguise our greed, yes?
After a night of candy-collecting, we flip the calendar and it’s like, Oh, Happy November! Let’s all write gratitude journals.
I’m all for a little costume and trick-or-treating fun, but it just seems like a strange juxtaposition to me—greed colliding with gratitude in a way that doesn’t feel quite right.
I’m not much of a Halloween fan (if you haven’t already guessed that…), but I certainly have no problem being friendly with greed.
I have a closet full of perfectly good clothes, and yet I bought another sweater last week.
My fridge holds an abundance of mostly organic food that will last me for days, but I still go to the store for that handful of ingredients because I’m craving something else for dinner.
I have a membership to a great gym, but there are days when I still moan and groan about exercise and not feeling motivated.
It’s hard for me to handle the thought of getting through a Wisconsin winter without a vacation to save me from cabin fever.
I can’t wait the extra few weeks to get that new book from the library, so I hop online and download it to my Kindle without batting an eye.
In hundreds of small ways, greed sneaks on quiet cat feet into my life and gets comfy, putting down roots and setting up shop while I go about my business not even noticing it’s there.
For those of us seeking to cultivate a long-lasting spirit of gratitude in our lives, this is tragic. Greed is the enemy of gratitude, and where one exists, the other cannot.
I have so much to learn in the Greed Management Department—like how not to be self-centered and self-serving in our western culture that puts so much emphasis on attaining more status and more stuff. I’m a work in progress to say the least.
I read a passage in Luke yesterday that gave me some food for thought:
This idea of being “on guard” against greed in all its sneaky forms got me thinking about the best weapons to use against it. What fights greed, fosters gratitude, and is accessible to anyone, anywhere, at any time, in any situation?
Those questions led me to Colossians 4:2. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”
Ah, bingo.
I love the way the ESV puts it: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
How do I enter into prayer? With thanksgiving and an alert, watchful spirit that seeks what is true and holy.
How do I shield myself from greed? By being on guard with that same spirit.
Like a searchlight in the Halloween dark of my heart, prayer illuminates the worst in me and lays the groundwork for repentance—which really just means changing my mind, shifting course, seeing the error in my greedy ways and heading in a better direction.
The term “Prayer Warrior” suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. Because while we may be the warriors, prayer is the weapon that slays the enemy. Without the weapon, we’re just a bunch of terrified, easy targets shaking in our boots on the battlefield.
Prayer is the bridge between victory and defeat.
The enemy cannot withstand the greed-crushing, gratitude-giving, Jesus-glorifying power of a skillful prayer warrior.
Just like greed can conquer over gratitude, gratitude can triumph over greed. Prayer is the hallowed place where we empty ourselves of the selfishness and indulgence, where we rip off the band-aid and bare our souls. (It’s not like God can’t see what’s underneath anyways, you know.)
In emptying out the steaming cauldron of greed, we make room for thanksgiving to spring forth like a fountain, ushering us into the courts of our King with choruses of thanksgiving and praise.
I can’t think of a better time than right now to begin trading in greed for gratitude as we enter into the holiday season, looking toward the birth of Christ.
Steadfast prayer will take us there.
–
(And you know, there’s no perfect way to pray. Come from a place of honesty—that’s what matters most. If prayer feels awkward to you, you’re not alone. When it feels uncomfortable, trust that—with time—it will change you.
I love this quote from C.S. Lewis: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It does not change God—it changes me.”)