Prayer: ACTS

This is the fourth article in our series on prayer. Each day we are looking at a particular aspect of prayer and examining what the Bible has to say about it. Today we will examine the outline ACTS which I have found it helpful to use to guide my prayer. I just pray through each of the following sections in this order.

Adoration – This is thinking about who God is and praising him for his attributes. My prayer journal which I mentioned yesterday starts each day this way. The Psalms are also great for this and are what my husband uses to guide his prayers. I also found a list of 30 of God’s attributes at here.

Confession – Thinking about God naturally leads us to realize that we fall short of his standard. This then is a good time to confess our sins and thank God for his forgiveness. One technique to guide in seeing your sins, is to go through the 10 commandments. My pastor recently did a great series on the Ten Commandments including how they reveal our sins and point us to the gospel. I highly recommend this sermon series! It can be downloaded for free here. This then leads right into . . .

Thanksgiving – When we have recognized who God is and how far we fall short of his standard, thanking God naturally follows. We can thank him for all he has done in forgiving our sins, keeping his promises, and answering previous prayers. I highly recommend that you keep a list of prayer requests and answers. I set mine up by writing my requests on one side of a piece of paper and then putting the date and answer next to it. I know that anything without an answer, I am still praying about. Also this way I remember to thank God when he does answer, and I can see how he is working.

Supplication – This is presenting our requests to God. For more information about this, see my previous articles on prayer.

If you’re anything like I was as I prepared these articles, you probably are thinking, "Okay, I’m definitely feeling convicted. I don’t pray as I know I should." Tomorrow we will talk about what comfort we can take concerning our prayer lives.