23 Best Soulful Thanksgiving Prayers Inspire Hope and Gratitude

One of the most heartwarming holidays of the year, Thanksgiving, is coming up soon. It’s time to thank God for all we have, spend time with our loved ones, and cook together. But a Thanksgiving meal is not complete without Thanksgiving prayers. When you pray over your meal, consider this list of prayers as a part of offering to give God glory for all the gifts we have in our lives.

Thanksgiving Prayers

Prayers About Thanksgiving

• #1 ” Lord, how can we ever thank You enough? You endured more pain, more shame, more sorrow, more grief than we can possibly fathom. Help us remember why You gave Your life. Because of love. Because of mercy. Because we desperately need them both. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. ” Liz Curtis Higgs

• #2 ” We thank you for the turkey, the gravy, and the dressing. Dear Lord, this table overflows with Thy abundant blessing. Let us always be aware that all gifts come from You, and may we serve Your heavenly will in everything we do. Amen.” Joanna Fuchs

• #3 ” O, heavenly Father: We thank thee for food and remember the hungry. We thank thee for health and remember the sick. We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless. We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. May these remembrances stir us to service, that thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.” Abigail van Buren

• #4 ” Heavenly Father, I am so grateful today. My heart overflows with gratitude. For eyes that see, for ears that hear, for fingers that grasp, for knees that bend, for lungs that breathe. I am so thankful for my family, my home, my Savior. Today, I ask for nothing and thank you for all things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Sharon Jaynes

• #5 ” O Thou, whose hand hath brought us Unto this joyful day, Accept our glad thanksgiving, And listen as we pray.” Frederick W. Goadby

• #6 ” For the laughter of the children, for my own life breath, for the abundance of food on this table, for the ones who prepared this sumptuous feast, for the roof over our heads, the clothes on our backs, for our health, and our wealth of blessings, for this opportunity to celebrate with family and friends, for the freedom to pray these words without fear, in any language, in any faith, in this great country, whose landscape is as vast and beautiful as her inhabitants. thank you, God, for giving us all these. Amen.” Rabbi Naomi Levy

• #7 ” Our Father in Heaven, we give thanks for the pleasure of gathering together for this occasion. We give thanks for this food prepared by loving hands. We give thanks for life, the freedom to enjoy it all, and all other blessings. As we partake of this food, we pray for health and strength to carry on and try to live as You would have us. This we ask in the name of Christ, Our Heavenly Father.” Harry Jewell

• #8 ” Most Gracious and all wise God; Before whose face the generations rise and fall; Thou in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee [for] all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and the love of human nature. ” Martin Luther King Jr.

• #9 ” O God, we thank you for this earth, our home; For the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills and the never-resting winds, for trees and the common grass underfoot. We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendor of the summer fields, and taste of the autumn fruits, and rejoice in the feel of the snow, and smell the breath of the spring. Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty, and save our souls from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thornbush is aflame with your glory. O God our creator, Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Walter Rauschenbusch

• #10 ” Thank You, God, for the food we are about to eat, for those who are here to share these blessings, for the generosity of our hosts that make this possible. Bless those who are here and those who are in our hearts, and all those who are not as fortunate on this day. Amen. Patricia Gore

Psalms For Thanksgiving and Praise

11-Psalm 111

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the assembly of the godly and the congregation.

The Lord’s deeds are great,
eagerly awaited by all who desire them.

His work is majestic and glorious,
and his faithfulness endures forever.

He does amazing things that will be remembered;
the Lord is merciful and compassionate.

He gives food to his faithful followers
he always remembers his covenant.

He announced that he would do mighty deeds for his people,
giving them a land that belonged to other nations.

His acts are characterized by faithfulness and justice;
all his precepts are reliable.

They are forever firm, and should be faithfully and properly carried out.

He delivered his people;
he ordained that his covenant be observed forever.
His name is holy and awesome.

To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living;
all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight.

He will receive praise forever.

12-Psalm 65:12-14

You adorn the year with your bounty;
your paths drip with fruitful rain.

The meadows of the wilderness also drip;
the hills are robed with joy.

The pastures are clothed with flocks,
the valleys blanketed with grain;
they cheer and sing for joy.

13-Psalm 150

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise God in his fortress, the sky!

Praise God in his mighty acts! Praise God as suits his incredible greatness!

Praise God with the blast of the ram’s horn! Praise God with lute and lyre!

Praise God with drum and dance! Praise God with strings and pipe!

Praise God with loud cymbals! Praise God with clashing cymbals!

Let every living thing praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!”

14-Psalm 146

“Praise the Lord! Let my whole being praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with all my life; I will sing praises to my God as long as I live.

Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings — there’s no saving help with them!
Their breath leaves them, then they go back to the ground. On that very same day, their plans die too.

The person whose help is the God of Jacob — the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God — is truly happy!

God: the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,

God: who is faithful forever, who gives justice to people who are oppressed, who gives bread to people who are starving!

The Lord: who frees prisoners.

The Lord: who makes the blind see.

The Lord: who straightens up those who are bent low.

The Lord: who loves the righteous.

The Lord: who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn!

The Lord will rule forever! Zion, your God will rule from one generation to the next!

Praise the Lord!

15-Psalm 121

“I raise my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
God won’t let your foot slip. Your protector won’t fall asleep on the job.
No! Israel’s protector never sleeps or rests!
The Lord is your protector; the Lord is your shade right beside you.
The sun won’t strike you during the day; neither will the moon at night.
The Lord will protect you from all evil; God will protect your very life.
The Lord will protect you on your journeys — whether going or coming — from now until forever from now.”

Thanksgiving Poetry

16-A Thanksgiving Prayer

Oh, God, when I have food
help me to remember the hungry;
when I have work, help me
to remember the jobless;
when I have a warm home,
help me to remember the homeless;
when I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer;
and remembering, help me
to destroy my complacency
and bestir my compassion.
Make me concerned enough
to help, by word and deed,
those who cry out
for what we take for granted.

Samuel F. Pugh

17-When Giving Is All We Have

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us
We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.
Giving has many faces.

Alberto Rios

18-Thanksgiving Day

Over the river, and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow,—
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie

Lydia Maria Child

19-A Thanksgiving Poem

Thou hast, with ever watchful eye,
Looked down on us with holy care,
And from thy storehouse in the sky
Hast scattered plenty everywhere.

Then lift we up our songs of praise
To thee, O Father, good and kind;
To thee, we consecrate our days;
Be thine the temple of each mind.

With incense sweet our thanks ascend;
Before thy works our powers pall;
Though we should strive years without end,
We could not thank thee for them all.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

20-Lord, ’tis Thy plenty-dropping hand

Lord, ’tis Thy plenty-dropping hand
That soils my land,
And giv’st me for my bushel sown
Twice ten for one.
All this, and better, Thou dost send
Me, to this end,
That I should render, for my part,
A thankful heart.

Robert Herrick

21-Thanksgiving

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway~
Thanksgiving comes again!

Old Rhyme

22-Ah! on Thanksgiving day …

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?

John Greenleaf Whittier

23-Thanksgiving

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o’er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

24-The Harvest Moon

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

25-A Song for Merry Harvest

Bring forth the harp, and let us sweep its fullest, loudest string.
The bee below, the bird above, are teaching us to sing
A song for merry harvest; and the one who will not bear
His grateful part partakes a boon he ill deserves to share.
The grasshopper is pouring forth his quick and trembling notes;
The laughter of the gleaner’s child, the heart’s own music floats.
Up! up! I say, a roundelay from every voice that lives
Should welcome merry harvest, and bless the God that gives.

Eliza Cook