Offer unto God thanksgivings and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me; Psalms 50:14-16, Whoso offers praise glorifies, me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. Psalms 50:23. See also, Isaiah 25:9.
Nothing moves God more to hear us, than the glorifying him by faith with thanksgiving, and the keeping up a filial confidence in him; and nothing quickeneth us more in faith, than the finest proofs of the hearing of our prayers. Thus God will certainly hear and deliver us, since all his ways are only designed to strengthen us in faith and to save our souls. Why need we then be afraid in times of trouble? Ought we not rather to draw near to God in prayer and thanksgiving, and glorify him even before hand, confidently believing that we shall certainly meet with new deliverances and quickenings of faith.
To what a stubborn frame
Has sin reduced our mind!
What strange ungrateful wretches we,
And God as strangely kind.
Turn, turn us, mighty God,
And mould our souls afresh;
Break, sovereign grace, these hearts of stone,
And give us hearts of flesh.
Let old ingratitude
Provoke our weeping eyes,
And hourly as new mercies fall
Let hourly thanks arise.