My church’s sermon today was on Psalm 145. It started me thinking about prayer. We are told to:

pray without ceasing; (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Of course there are lots of kinds of prayer. Sometimes we pray privately and sometimes we pray as a group. Sometimes we spend a long time praying our heart out and sometimes we throw up a quick prayer in a busy or fearful moment. We pray about many different things and should have prayer woven into all of our day.

ACTS

I always like the acrostic ACTS to help us cover the bases with our prayer.

A - Adoration

C - Confession

T - Thanksgiving

S - Supplication

Too often we treat God like a magic genie in the sky, who is there to meet our every desire. God is not a genie. He isn’t our servant, but we are His. He is not here to fulfill our will, but we are here to fulfill His will. Even if we don’t think of God as our own personal genie, frequently our prayers sound like we think He is.

Just like the ACTS prayer model, in the model prayer, given by Jesus, it starts with Adoration and includes a lot more than a bunch of requests.

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ (Matthew 6:9-13)

Although Jesus’s model prayer is in a slightly different order, it still starts with Adoration of God for who He is.

Unfortunately, we tend to reverse ACTS. We start with fervor through a long list of requests. We then throw in a couple of thanks for fulfilled requests. Most of the time we totally skip the Confession and the Adoration.

I think, if we spent more time on adoration, we’d feel a lot more comfortable with the Confession. When we really contemplate and understand the holiness, goodness, love, power, and authority of God, we realize how far we fall short. If we compare ourselves to our incomparable God instead of to the people around us, we suddenly realize we have a lot to confess.

Let’s look at these two less exercised forms of prayer. FYI, I’m preaching to myself as much as to anyone who reads this. I need it every bit as much. Even when we know we should do something, we all need a reminder now and then.

Adoration, Praise, & Worship

I think we frequently equate Thanks with Praise, but they are not the same. Thanks is appreciation for what God has done for us, but Adoration/Praise is appreciation for who God is.

In this modern world, we just don’t think about how awesome God is. We can’t really comprehend His absolute holiness. Our limited minds can only get a faint idea of what omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence could be like. We can’t understand what it would be like to not be limited by time and space or to be able to know and see all things, in all places, and in all times all at once. It takes mental effort to even begin to understand these incomprehensible traits of God and realize how awesome it is that we can know and be loved by someone who is so beyond us.

I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power; To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever. (Psalm 145)

This is the God who loves you, died for you, and wants your total attention. We are so blessed to be part of the family of God.

What are some things we can praise God for?

• Praise Him for being Creator: for what He has made, for His creativity, for the beauty in creation, for How perfect His creation is for supporting life, and for how wonderfully we are made
• Praise Him for His Holiness: for His perfection, for His goodness, for His unchanging word
• Praise Him for His Love: for His mercy, for His sacrifice, for His faithfulness when we are not faithful
• Praise Him for His Wisdom: for His knowledge, for His understanding, for His never making a mistake
• Praise Him for His Sacrifice: for being born a baby, for living a perfect life on earth limited by human limitations, for suffering and dying to take away our sins, for rising from the dead
• Praise Him for His Mercy: for lowering Himself to our level to experience what we experience, for forgiving when we fail again and again and again, for giving us a way to be reconciled to Him
• Praise Him for His Faithfulness: for never changing, but being a firm foundation on which we can rest

I’m sure I’m missing some more important traits of God for which He should be praised. There is so much for which to praise God.

When we don’t read our Bibles, we can’t know who He really is. When we don’t pray continually, we don’t have a close relationship with Him. When we don’t know who He is, we don’t realize how deserving of praise He is.

One day, when we see Him face to face and fully realize who He is, we will burst out in unending praise and worship along with everyone else — mankind and angels. What a glorious time that will be.

Confession of Sins

Once we realize how holy and perfect God is, our imperfections will start to stand out more and more. Once we realize that God is all knowing and wise, we realize that being silent about our sin is futile and only leads to separation from God. I think that when we spend time studying God and praising Him for what He is and what He has done, we will naturally be more inclined to confess our sins.

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Obviously we need to confess our sins when we accept Jesus as savior, but we also need to confess our sins when we sin anew.

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

We also need to confess our sins when we realize we previously committed sins in ignorance. In the Old Testament, they had special sacrifices that were to be offered when a person realized they had broken God’s commandments out of ignorance. Today, we don’t need to offer a sacrifice, Jesus offered it for us, but confessing our sins heals the relationship with our Savior and is part of the sanctification process of becoming more like Christ.

May God open your heart and mind to His word, so you know Him, respect Him, praise Him, and obey Him. May God grow your prayer life, so prayer is a part of every aspect of your life. May He help you to not just ask for needs and wants, but to praise Him for who He is and what He has done and to confess who you are and what you have done.

Trust Jesus

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.