Discovering God At Home

A successful prayer is a prayer that is sincerely prayed.  It is not important what words we use to pray, but it is important that we do pray, and that we pray fervently.  Prayer allows for two-way communication with God.  We speak to Him, and He will speak to us.  He longs to hear about our frustrations, joys, fears, dreams and needs.  We can tell Him anything.  There is comfort in knowing that He hears our every prayer.  In addition, we can approach God with a humble heart attitude and with a heart of confidence and expectancy.  We are assured that God does have the power to answer every prayer, but also know that the answers will come only in God's perfect timing and will.  I John 5:14-15 (ESV) reads, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him [Jesus], that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."

 
One way to pray to God is to follow the acronym known as

ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.  The characteristics of the ACTS prayer are found in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave us as a way to pray.  Those verses can be found in Matthew 6:9-13.  By having consistent prayer time, we can build the relationship with God that was restored through Jesus' sacrifice. The more we know God, the more we will want to talk with Him. Just as we want to spend time with our friends, we will want to spend time with God in prayer.

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Our favorite part of prayer is Adoration.  We are most joyful when we think about who God is.  It is just mind-boggling to think about how great He is!  Quite often our praise for Him can come from a past event, present experience, or even from faith we have in God's future plans for us -- whatever the Holy Spirit brings to our mind. We can see His attributes exhibited through our experiences and/or through the experiences of different characters in the Bible. If you like, you can praise Him for the attributes you find in the devotion.  Psalm 146:10 (ESV) is a good reminder about praise -- "The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!"  

Confession is the 2nd part of the prayer.  We need to confess our sins, so that we can be forgiven and renew our relationship with God.  Furthermore, we know that confession is not only about God forgiving us, but also about allowing God to change us -- to help us to repent or turn away from our sins. John writes in 1 John 1:9 (ESV), "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The 3rd section is Thankfulness. Do we really know all that Jesus does for us on a daily basis?  Our whole attitude in life changes when we focus on thanking Him for all the little and big things that He does for us.  We feel like cherished sheep in the field for He is our Good Shepherd.  He cares for us and loves us.  We especially like how Paul writes about thankfulness in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV), "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

   
Finally, we come to Supplication -- making our requests known to God.  He already knows what our needs are, but for our benefit, God asks us to come to Him in prayer.  Our prayers confirm our need to rely on Him.  There are many things to pray for – ourselves, family, friends, those that are in need, the church and its leadership, the leaders of our country, etc.  What a gift it is to know as Paul writes in Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV), "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
 

What a privilege it is that we can pray to God anytime!