In addition to telling the Thessalonians to give thanks in all circumstances, Paul advised them to "pray continually" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This advice always puzzled me. How could anyone possibly pray all the time? That sounded like a recipe for crazy making. It wasn't until I learned about the Jewish custom of offering berakhah or brakha, prayers of blessing, that I began to perceive Paul's meaning. Deuteronomy 8:10 advises the Israelites to "bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you" (NASB). In order to heed this Scripture, the Jewish people began offering short prayers praising God throughout the day. They would offer these from the moment they awoke until the moment they went to bed. Jesus himself would have said many such blessings.
This tradition has continued through the centuries so that observant Jews today pray on average at least a hundred blessings a day. Here are a few you might want to incorporate into your own life:
When you open your eyes in the morning: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who gives sight to the blind.
When you wake up: I am grateful before you, living and eternal King, for returning my soul to me with compassion. You are faithful beyond measure.
When you get dressed: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who clothes the naked.
When you've survived an illness or danger: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who bestows good things on the unworthy, and has bestowed on me every goodness.
When you go to bed: Blessed are you, O Lord, Our God, King of the universe, who created day and night. You roll away the light from before the darkness, and the darkness from before the light. Blessed are you, Lord, who creates the evening twilight. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who makes the bands of sleep fall upon my eyes, and slumber upon my eyelids. May it be your will to let me lie down in peace, and to let me rise up again in peace.
There are blessings you pray when you eat, bathe, study the Bible, receive forgiveness, encounter a beautiful person or a gifted rabbi, and even when you experience grief. The idea of thanking God even when life is difficult is that we are to love him with our whole hearts, which means we don't fence off the sad or mournful parts. But will saying so many formal prayers devolve into rote recitation? Will we forget what we are saying? Possibly. But it's equally likely that such continual acts of devotion will turn our eyes toward God, reframing the narrative of what is happening around us.
In Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg and I comment:
"Remember all the times your mother reminded you to use the magic words, 'Please' and 'Thank you'? She did it because she knew that this small habit has the power to instill attitudes of thankfulness and consideration. Likewise the habit of continually blessing God teaches us to be ever mindful of how much God loves us and how continually he cares for us."
In an effort to heed Paul's advice to pray continually, some early Christians developed short prayers called aspirations. Augustine pointed out that the advantage of such prayers is that they are so short that they make it easier for us to maintain the concentrated focus that prayer requires. We can invent our own short prayers throughout the day. Something as simple as, "Thank you, Lord, for giving me a place to live"; "Lord, I'm so grateful for food on the table"; "or "Thank you for your mercy" will suffice. The point is to pray frequently and from the heart.
G.K. Chesterton once said,
"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink."
That's the attitude that should shape our own prayers as we seek to express our gratitude toward God.
