My heart is being pricked of late because I seem to forget to start my prayers in adoration towards God. I am afraid that too often I jump right into the “Give me” part which should be the last thing we do.
I learned an acronym years ago that leads us into prayer and reminds us of the four major parts of prayers.
It’s called A.C.T.S.
- A – Adoration – just plain praise for the Father. It’s what He is looking for. It’s why we were created.
- C – Confession – We need to come to Him daily to confess our sins, asking forgiveness for where we blunder, mess up, or outright sin against Him. We’ll talk more about confession at another time.
- T – Thanksgiving – Oh, never forget to thank God for all He has done. If the only thing He did for us was to save us from sin and death, we should be thanking Him over and over again.
- S – Supplication – Finally, in the last position, our requests. I’m afraid that all too often we go straight to this part of prayer.
Start Your Prayers with Adoration
Consider this: When we pray, first approach God’s throne with humility and in awe of how great our God is; how worthy He is of our praise. We can do this through the singing of hymns or even just meditating on hymns of praise. We can also adore him by quoting scriptures, such as this prayer in 1 Chronicles when Solomon was dedicating the Temple to God.
23 Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
24 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
25 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods.
26 The gods of other nations are mere idols,
but the Lord made the heavens!
27 Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and joy fill his dwelling.28 O nations of the world, recognize the Lord,
recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.
29 Give to the Lord the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.
30 Let all the earth tremble before him.
The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.31 Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
1 Chronicles 16:23-31 NLT
Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
Here’s A Thought
You know, I’m thinking, Why not just wake up each morning with scriptures like this one? Memorize it so that you can speak it out to Him in praise every morning to get your day started. Then sing the Doxology or another hymn of praise. I would bet that your days will go a lot better if you started this practice.
Need Even More Help Adoring our God?
I have always loved the prayers of Anne Graham Lotz. She knows how to bring us into the presence of God. Some of her prayer series are on You Version and you can actually listen to her prayer. What a great friend to enter His presence with!
Now she has published a book with about a month’s worth of prayers. She uses scripture, as I have suggested above. She offers repentance which we all need to be doing, personally and collectively. I’m trying to get into the habit of using this book to start off my quiet time each morning.
Praising God with you,
P.S. Examples of this type of prayer
I have always loved the prayers of Anne Graham Lotz. She is releasing a new book of prayers in October. I am honored to receive a copy of The Light of His Presence: Prayers to Draw You Near to the Heart of God to review for her. While I am only three days into it, these are beautiful prayers. Go pre-order your copy today!
Pastor’s Wife (retired) & Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.
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Thank you. I’ll try to go grab the features image this weekend.