What is ACTS - a prayer model

Do you ever wonder how you should pray to God? I have heard numerous people say that they just do not know how to pray, so they simply skip this important piece of communication with their heavenly father. That is too bed, because there is such rich blessings waiting for us when we do not neglect this important facet of our relationship with God.

Many years ago another Christian mentor shared with me a neat little acronym that gave me a four step guide on how to form a prayer offering to God. Interestingly it spells out the name of one of the books of the bible, which helps to reinforce the success of your memory retention. This acronym is A.C.T.S.

To explain the idea of the first part I want to take you back to when you met your first love. Try to remember how much you adored that person, how much you could not wait to spend time with them, how you cherished everything about them. That is the idea here, to be so enamored that you want to praise all there is about God. Praise him for his omnipotence, for his omniscience, his omnipresence, always being with you.

Praise him for the majesty of creation, the way the seasons bring such beauty to the earth. We can praise his bountiful supply for all our needs, the way he provides a mate, children, our health, our wealth; the list is endless of things we can include in this piece of the action. What is important is that we do not hold back in the opportunity to lift up our praises to the creator of all things.

God loves to hear us do this. The bible tells us it is a sweet savor to Him. It shows we see the wonderful acts of love he has put in place for us and that we take the time to acknowledge our subjection to Him.

Uh-oh, this one may take some work. This is where we have to admit we may not be living the perfect Christian life. Remember, when we confessed our sins and accepted Christ into our life he cleaned the slate, erasing our sins so we can live an eternal life with him in Heaven. That does not mean we will never sin again, so this is a point where we can take stock of our actions and tell God what we have problems with.

Of course he already knows this, but He wants us to verbalize it in a way that we understand it is not what He wants for our life. I believe God wants us to continue to work so that we don’t continue to repeat actions that are not Christ like. For many of us, certainly me, this is a never completed task. It is the times that I come to God in prayer and repeat past confessions that I shake my head at my human limits.

How important is thanksgiving? It was important enough in the United States that we built an entire holiday around it. All jokes aside, we should be careful to thank God for everything we have. For without Him there would be nothing.

Philippians 4:19 (KJV) tell us: My God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. We might not think about it like this, but God gives us our health, wealth, intelligence, abilities, talent, in short there is nothing we possess that is not a blessing from God. There is a serious arrogance in deciding we are to thank for anything that is in our life.

Giving thanks can sometimes be the biggest part of this prayer model. There are just so many things to thank God for that it is easy to get carried away and find yourself using quite a bit of time. This is not a bad thing, as God loves for us to spend time with Him in prayer.

I actually had to look for the definition of supplication to insert here. I know what to do at this point, as I have practiced this for many years, but wasn’t so sure how to explain it. What this means is to offer a humble pleading for help with our failings, often the confessions of the second part of this idea.

Truthfully we all can find many things to accompany this piece of the model, areas of weakness we want strengthened through interaction with our heavenly father. It is crucial to be honest about our weaknesses and attend to them earnestly as we attempt to become the Christian God sees lurking inside us. The reward that follows is such a great joy it would be a tragedy to miss.

Try your hand at this idea, keeping in mind that it may take time to get it to be a normal part of your prayer routine. God will appreciate the effort you make at making your prayer time more than just a meal time recital of a worn out preschool chant.