I have been working on staff at a church for over 15 years. In those years, at least once a week, I take prayer requests at youth meetings, Sunday school, Bible study, etc. For the most part, the lists consist of prayers of supplication. In other words, 90% of the prayers are asking God for something, healing, jobs, travel mercies, etc. And these are all good things to bring before the Lord. In fact, I would be highly concerned if we weren’t bringing our supplications to him. After all, we are told to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:5). Approaching the Lord with our needs is good.

That being said, I’d like to consider the other 10%: prayers of thanksgiving. Very often, when I ask for praises, the room is silent. I never receive texts from people asking me to join them in thanking God that they traveled safely to the beach and back. For some reason, we often struggle to list the ways God has provided for us, but excel in bringing our requests. I believe there are two reasons for this: (1) we fail to see God’s goodness amid plenty, and (2) we begin to believe we are the ones providing for our needs.

It would behoove us to recognize that this failure to express gratitude isn’t unique to the modern church–Israel was infamous for this. For example, in Judges 2:10, we read:
“And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done with Israel.”
“All that generation” was referring to the generation of Joshua. If you remember, “that generation” was the one that passed through the Jordan on dry land, watched Jericho fall, defeated giants, and benefited from the sun standing still. But somehow, “another generation,” the next one, did not remember the goodness of Yahweh and turned from him to worship pagan gods.

The chapters that follow Judges 2:10 narrate a familiar cycle in which Israel forgets Yahweh, turns to pagan gods, is sold into their enemies by Yahweh, and cries out for deliverance. The Lord, in his great mercy, then sends a deliverer (a judge) and restores peace in Israel. Rinse and repeat. So, in summary, Israel forgets their need for Yahweh when life is good. When life turns against them, they cry out for deliverance.

Now, back to the modern church. When life is difficult, we attend church more, pray harder, put K-LOVE on the radio, and read our Bibles. We do the things that honor God because we recognize that we need Him. However, when life is good–our marriage is healthy, the children are excelling in school, and finances are secure–church becomes less important, prayer is less consistent, country music returns to the radio, and our daily Bible reading plans begins to pile up. We have more difficulty remembering the uniqueness of God’s goodness because goodness is all around us.

This is exactly what Satan desires: a people who have forgotten or cannot be bothered to recognize God’s goodness. Goodness in life tempts complacency in sanctification. Friends, our need for the church is often the highest when life is good.