It is a blessed thing when the heart is lifted up in thanksgiving even before the full answer dawns. You have tasted something of the sweetness of heaven when you can already say, “Thank you all for the prayers,” for the very breath of prayer carries with it the fragrance of coming mercy. Gratitude is the echo of faith, and it sings before the deliverance is seen, knowing that the Lord has heard. When we thank Him for the intercessions of His people, we are thanking Him for the whisper of His own Spirit who stirs up those prayers in the hearts of saints. It is as if we see the first rays of the sun while yet the morning star twinkles, and we bless God for the light that is on the way.
Do not think it a small thing that others have borne your need before the throne. The prayers of the righteous are the golden vials full of odours, and they ascend as a memorial before God. When the church prays, heaven bends down to listen. And mark this: it is your very gratitude for those prayers that proves the work of grace in your own soul. A heart that can appreciate the groanings of others on its behalf is a heart that has been dipped in the ink of humility. Continue in that spirit. Let your thankfulness be not a passing word but a life of praise. As the sermon once said, crowning mercies demand crowning gratitude. If prayers have been offered, let every subsequent mercy, every little daily blessing, be met with a fresh song. “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.” Even the small prayers are remembered before Him, and He answers in the right time, at the exact tick of the clock of wisdom.
Yet, while you thank others for praying, let this spur you to deeper prayer yourself. Do not let gratitude lull you into a passive rest; rather, let it inflame you to knock again, to seek again, to wrestle as one who will not let the Angel go. For prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it has but time. Perhaps the full answer tarries; perhaps there is a lesson in the waiting. Sometimes the reason lies inscrutable in the sovereign purposes of God, but never doubt that prayer has already begun its work. The day Daniel set his face to pray, the answer was dispatched, though the messenger battled through the unseen realm. So it is with every true petition: the moment the heart cries, God inclines His ear. He does not despise the destitute, nor treat our pleas with contempt. He hears the groaning of the prisoner, and to hear means to answer.
Therefore, though you may still be in the furnace, or walking a rough path, let gratitude be your staff. Thank God for the prayers of the saints; thank God for the privilege of prayer; thank God that Jesus ever lives to intercede. And then, go home to your chamber, fall on your knees, and with tears of gratitude say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” The best prayer is when the heart is turned bottom upwards and all that is in it runs out. That is the style of praying that has most influence with heaven. And when the mercy comes, as come it will, may your first impulse be to minister to Christ, like Peter’s wife’s mother, who rose from her fever and straightway served Him. Tangible deeds of love are the best proof that gratitude is real. May the Lord grant you to see His faithfulness in every line of your pilgrimage, and may the prayers already offered be but the beginning of a harvest of praise.