Lesson 3 of 6 · 8 min

Praise, Confession and Thanks

Three movements that keep prayer from collapsing into a list of requests.

Praise: saying what God is like

Praise is not flattery; God does not need it. It is the sane response to reality, and it recalibrates you. Naming who God is — faithful, holy, patient, just — shrinks a problem without denying it.

Confession: telling the truth about yourself

Confession is specific. 'Sorry for everything' changes nothing; naming the actual thing does. And confession ends in receiving forgiveness out loud, not in wallowing — self-hatred is not the same as repentance.

Thanks: the discipline of noticing

Gratitude is a habit before it is a feeling. Counting five ordinary things from the last day retrains attention that naturally drifts to what is missing.

Key passages

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Psalm 100:4
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
1 John 1:9
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Psalm 103:2

Reflect

Which of the three do you skip most often, and why?

Next: When God Seems Silent

Where this came from

We're not experts — these are the sources we used while researching this page. Read them yourself, keep digging, and hold us to them.

[1]The Holy Bible — Blue Letter Bible interlinear and lexicons
Primary source for every lesson; Strong's and BDB/Thayer entries for word studies.
[2]The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) — full text and history, Britannica
The doctrinal frame for the lessons on God, Christ and the Spirit.
[3]N. T. Wright, lectures and articles archive (NTWrightPage)
New Testament scholarship drawn on for the gospel, kingdom and resurrection lessons.
[4]Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican) and the Westminster Confession of Faith
Consulted side by side wherever a lesson describes how different traditions teach a doctrine.