A.C.T.S. – Back to The Basics

Scripture: Romans 8:26 HCSB - In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

I have a confession to make: I don’t always pray like I should. Prayer isn’t as complicated as I make it. God doesn’t wanna hear a bunch of flowery words, He just wants to hear my heart! Prayer is simply me having a conversation with God – when I speak, He listens and when He speaks, I (am supposed to) listen.

When I feel like I am not covering all the bases, I go back to the basics of prayer, the A.C.T.S. of prayer. The acronym stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. It guides my prayer and allows me to express just how grateful I am to have the Lord in my life! He desires to hear from us, He wants to bless us and He wants our lives as living testimonies to others around us. So let’s take a look at prayer from the perspective of this acronym:
Adoration: giving God praise, adoring Him and honoring Him simply because of Who He is; telling Him how wonderful He is in our lives and the lives of others; calling Him by the many Names we know Him to be!

Confession: dealing with the sin in our lives; repenting – agreeing with God that we are wrong; turning away from our wrong ways and turning to God; having a change of mind when it comes to calling our sin what it is – sin!

Thanksgiving: telling God what we are grateful for in and around us; thanking Him for all He has done, all He has given us and all He allows us to experience – good, bad or indifferent; thanking Him for where we are even if it’s not where we want to be!

Supplication: praying for things we need God to do in our lives and in the lives of others; asking Him to purposely intervene in the circumstances in our lives; making our requests made known to God and letting go of our control issues and allowing Him to move in those areas as only He can!

Using these four words as the content of our prayers enables us to grow in our prayer lives. It causes us to not just come to God asking Him to do this and that, it refocuses us to acknowledge and thank Him for what He has already done for us! He truly knows how to draw us near Him … and sometimes, it’s just through the basic principle of prayer.

Prayer: Father, You are an AWESOME God! Thank You for showing us how to pray, teaching how to tap into Your wonderful works in and around us. Thank You that You incline Your ear to hear us. Forgive us for not coming to You before going to others, realizing that nobody has done as much for us as You have done/continue to do! Father help us purpose to be more sincere in our prayer life so that You can get the best out of us while we experience the best abundant life You want to bless us with! In Jesus’ Name we always pray, AMEN!

(By Cassaundra Turner)