In this episode of Chai Beauty, we explore Session Three of the When You Pray Bible study, taught by Jackie Hill Perry, which focuses on the prayer of petition and thanksgiving. I reflect on what it means to bring a formal request before God, knowing we never come alone—the Holy Spirit intercedes for us—and how gratitude transforms the way we present our needs. We talk about letting our petitions glorify God, trusting His sovereign nature, and relying on His wisdom, counsel, and power when life feels limited by our perspective. I share why our “micro-movements” matter, how the Lord of Hosts fights for us, and how God’s timelessness changes the way we view waiting. This episode is an encouragement to hand over your struggles, walk in His guidance, and remember the goodness of God in every season.
Season 4: Episode 4 – Petition and Thanksgiving: Trusting the Sovereign God
In this episode, we dive into Session Three of When You Pray with Jackie Hill Perry, focusing on petition and thanksgiving in prayer. I share what it means to bring formal requests before God, why gratitude is essential, and how trusting His sovereignty changes how we wait. You’ll hear how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, why “micro-movements” matter in faith, and how the Lord of Hosts fights on our behalf.
💬 Question for You:
What are you petitioning God for this season, and how are you giving Him thanks in the process?
Episode Chapters – Season 4, Episode 4: Petition and Thanksgiving
00:00 – Welcome to Chai Beauty
00:23 – Session Three Overview: Jackie Hill Perry on Petition & Thanksgiving
02:10 – What Petition Really Means
04:02 – Petitioning God with the Holy Spirit’s Help
05:40 – Defining Thanksgiving in Prayer
07:08 – Asking the Right Questions in Your Petition
08:42 – Letting Petitions Glorify God, Not Just Bring Convenience
10:15 – Seeking the Seven Spirits of God: Wisdom, Counsel, Power
12:00 – God’s Sovereignty & Limitless Nature
14:18 – The Lord of Hosts: God Who Fights for You
16:10 – Free Will, Guidance, and Micro-Movements That Lead to Big Results
18:45 – Trusting God’s Plans for Every Path You Could Take
21:10 – Remembering Moments of God’s Goodness
22:28 – Final Encouragement & Community Invitation
Hi, I'm so happy you're here. Welcome to Chai Beauty, where I get to share my thoughts, my dreams, my aspirations, my visions for the future. And guess what? You get to be along for this journey because we are in this together.
When you begin session three, it says, my heart rejoices in the Lord, and this one is by Jackie Hill Perry. It's the prayer petition in Thanksgiving, and as I told you in the beginning, I really advise you to go purchase this book. Because it's helping you with your foundation. So not only did it say, why do we pray?
How do we pray? What is the Lord's Prayer? And it gives us context, but it takes it a step further. And we talk about petition and we talk about Thanksgiving. And for me that was like a no brainer. I was like, of course I'm gonna tell Jesus my problems, like I'm hurt. You need to tell me. But I actually took a moment in Google Petition and Petition is a formal written request, often signed by many people asking for a specific action from authority or a public body.
It can be a legal document submitted to a court or a public appeal to change. And that made me take a moment back and say, if I'm petitioning, I'm giving a formal request. It means I am not the only one signing it and then I'm taking it to court. What I love about petition. You may go to Jesus and say, Lord, I need this.
But because Jesus died for us, he's with us. The Holy Spirit is dwelling us to let God know what's happening and guiding us and giving us wisdom. So in reality, when we petition, we're not alone. And. That just makes me rejoice because if I'm not alone and I'm going to my God and asking and requesting something that has really hurt me, I'm so grateful.
But I also think about Thanksgiving in this because with, as you learn with. Petition, you have to give thanks. And Thanksgiving is the expression of gratitude, especially to God. Thanksgiving is saying that I may not know. But I can give a public knowledge or celebration of divine goodness, the act of giving things a praying, a prayer, or a praying expression of gratitude.
And that's just the definition. So not only am I coming to you as a group, God, but I'm also saying that. It's already done and that you are so good, like I learned earlier, and I appreciate everything you do for me. So I asked you in this moment in time, what is your problem? How are you giving thanks to God?
How are you going to his court and how are you, Jesus and the Holy Spirit coming in alignment to say like, thank you Father, because I know whatever. I'm going through you. You got this. You are an ominous presence. You know everything. So all I can say is thank you. Thanks for seeing me. Thanks for knowing me.
Thanks for just validating me. Moments that I'm not sure how to do, or I may not even understand what is happening, but I do trust you. So I ask you again, are you thanking God this season? How are you being with him? How are you loving him?
And as you thought about petition and you thought about Thanksgiving for me, this season of life. Required me as I told you to give something to Jesus. So I petitioned and I let, and I just let him go, and I couldn't talk about it anymore, but I take it a step further and I wanna talk about my own flesh.
I identify a problem, I petitioned, but guess what? I at no moment said how this would glorify God. It just made my life more convenient. It made it easier and for me to navigate life, it made it easier for me to just do what I want. But I have to say like in this moment, like how, Lord, my petition that I, I have gave to you.
In silence. I ask that. Let it glorify you. Let me see a way that I can give it back to you. Let me walk the path that you walk. Let me do the things that. I may not know what to do, but you know it all. And let me have the seven spirits of counsel. Let me, Lord, give me your power. Give me your wisdom, give me your understanding.
And most important, continue to be my counsel and continue to bring people to me even though I may not know them, but you know them, and you know that at the end of the day. You are there for me, and if I use my counsel correctly, I can only seed. So Lord, thank you. Thank you for being you. Thank you for the seven laws.
Thank you for the seven L of Spirit. Thank you. Just thank you. Thank you for being a sovereign God. The story, Jackie takes it up farther. If a sovereign God is powerful, he can overcome everything. He can overcome every obstacle, because I'll always take it back to the message of like, he dwells out of things and we dwell in them.
So for him to dwell in something. For us to dwell in something, we have parameters, like there's just some things we can never do, and that's hard for us to understand because in culture and life, it tells us if we work hard, if we move the way we do, if we do the right things, we're eventually going to get to where we need to go.
But that's not the case. That's not true. What we do know is that we. Or a resource, not the source. So we can get wisdom from God, we can get understanding from God, we can get counsel from God, we can get his power, we can get his knowledge. And most important, we have the wisdom to fear God and to understand that we will get tired, but he won't.
He just looks at us and helps us and guide us that the problem that we may have is only temporary. And what temporary means is short lived because he's out of time, he doesn't dwell on time. So our time zones are different where we may feel like it's been years and years and years, it's only a blink of an eye for him.
And he knows what you don't know. He knows the neighbor next door. He knows the mailman. He knows them intimately 'cause he created them. He's sore. He's the God of God. He's the creator, ed. Most importantly why I really think you should read this book is you learn about the Lord of host. The warrior of God and what he will do to fight for you, but you have to decide what you wanna do because only you can make this decision.
He's such a great God that when he created us, he said, I'll let them decide what they want to do. And for me, that just shows. How generous he is because I don't know about y'all, but even in a position of management, you learn how to collaborate, you learn how to work well with others. But sometimes if we be honest, we'd be like, just do what I say.
Like, you're making this so difficult, and if you do what I say, like, we'll be good. Like we won't have no issues. Like I know something that the. Senior leadership team has told me, but I can't tell you because it's not the right time. What I can do
is guide you and give you hints along the way to hope that you understand. And if you make it difficult, thank you, Jesus, remind me. But if you make it difficult, like it takes a lot longer for us to get to the outcome, because remember, micro movements and actions make big results. We get these outcomes from all the little things we've done, and I encourage you to really look at your micro moment, look at your problem.
Just say, Lord of hosts, do what you do. Be the sovereign that you are. Be the power that you are. Be the wisdom that you are. Be the counsel that you are. Be you. Be good. And show me the way. Let the Holy Spirit. Speak to me and guide me because I wanna take a moment just to talk to you because sometimes I need this talking as well.
God has created you in the wound, so that means he wherever you are in life, he knew when you were born, he knew the problems work that you were gonna face. He knew the moments that you were gonna take something or do something that. Probably would've set you on a different path. And, but the good thing about it is he has, in his mind, seven plans for this fort that only has two ways for you because he is gonna always set you on the right path.
So if you are like. The poem. There were two paths and I took the one Less likely he knew that and he planned for that. He also knew that like you could potentially take the other path and he planned for that to get you on the right path. He also said like. I'm here like I challenge you to remember what I am.
I challenge you to remember those moments of joy, those moments of peace, those moments of not keeping a score. Those moments of patience. I challenge you to remember the goodness of God today and be great and loved.
Thank you. Thank you for all the support. I see it and I am growing mighty, and I have some news. I have done a lot of projects since I've been gone. I would like you to visit my website, subscribe to my Spotify, and go to my Patreon account. It's Hai. Underscore beauty, just like this podcast so you can get all the latest updates.
I can't wait to see you there because we are in this together, my friend. I look forward to seeing you.