Length: 15-30 mins

Express your gratitude to the Lord together.

Link to printable version coming soon

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen!

Psalm 72:18-19

A Thanksgiving Exercise

Identify ten things for which you can thank God. Write them down. Be specific! Take a break, then list ten more. Then, if there’s time, ten more.

Take one or more of those things and write a “berekah” — a blessing. The berekah is a common form of prayer in the Old Testament. They begin with the words, “Blessed be the Lord” or “Blessed are You, O Lord” and declare his character and his works, often ending with a prayer related to that aspect of his character.

Here is an example from 1 Kings 8:56-60:

Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.

Take turns reading your blessings aloud, responding to each prayer with, “Blessed are you, O Lord.”