ACTS: A Way to Pray

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

What an incredible first week! This is going to be a wonderful study on prayer. I was introduced to the ACTS model of prayer in my youth group as a teenager. Each day as I've opened Facebook to see our daily post, I was reminded of early morning prayer times before school with a group of teenagers and our youth pastor. I'm thankful for the investment of leaders, and I'm thankful for memories.

Once we've praised God, confessed our sin and weakness to God, and thanked God, we get to express our needs and wants to God. We get to ask the God of the universe, the One who created us and everything else, to intervene in our lives. Do we exercise this gift enough?

I have to admit that I've struggled in this area. Honestly, I will often feel insecure and inadequate next to those that clearly have committed prayer lives and prayer for themselves and others regularly.

My mom is a prayer warrior. I can't tell you of a single day when I lived at home that I didn't wake up and know exactly where to find her.... in her chair with her Bible and all of her prayer lists in front of her. When I started teaching 3rd grade, Mom wanted my list of students at the start of every year. She prayed for them by name every day. When the new year started, she could never stop praying for the twenty something kids from the previous year, so she just added lists. She STILL prays for this kids (adults) and asks me if I know anything about them at times. Y'all, I stopped teaching in 2003!

Stories like this have made me feel so inadequate. But, a couple of years ago, I just added some prayer pages to my journal and labeled them with the days of the week. On each day, I separated out the different things, people, events that I wanted to remember to regularly pray for. As I sit to do my quiet time, I turn to that page. I praise God, confess to God, thank God, and then I pray through the day's list. Sometimes it feels rote and routine, and sometimes I feel like I have genuine conversation with the Lord.

As awkward and inadequate as I sometimes feel, I bet my Heavenly Father loves my attempts. I am sure He isn't listening and grading my wording like a High school English teacher. And, I am confident I'm more comfortable with it today than I was when I started. Prayer is a journey with the Lord just like every other spiritual practice.

Today, let's use our prayer journals to write out some specific prayer requests. Put that list in a place where you'll see it throughout our prayer study. I am going to add to my list along with you. I believe God hears our prayers, and I believe He answers. Why would we forfeit this beautiful invitation to make our supplications known to Him?

Father God, I thank you that you hear our prayers. I thank you that we can TRUST You to answer and to answer exactly as we need. There is such relief in turning our requests over to You. As we make a list of prayer requests today, God, bring to mind the things that are constant concerns. Guide us to the way You'd have us pray through them. Then, remind us that You are in complete control. We want to learn more about prayer, and we want to take full advantage of this gift of communication You've given us. So, I pray You'd build our confidence in it. Make us mighty warriors in prayer for ourselves, our families, and our communities. Amen.