Contributor: Dr. Ruth T. Reyes
Do you remember the very first prayer you learned to say, perhaps with mom or dad coaching you along? God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread. The ritual of saying “grace” before a meal affords the opportunity for little children to talk to God and learn to thank Him for providing for their needs, in this case, food!
What about this next prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. And if the if I should die part is deemed too morbid for a child to say, a G-version goes like this: guide me safely through the night, wake me with the morning light. This prayer assures a kid that there is no need to be afraid at nighttime. God is there to protect and watch over through the aloneness and fear of the dark.
In good time and a little growing up, one can only hope that our prayer life would also have developed. The Bible reminds us how important prayer is to our Christian walk. Jesus encouraged us to pray in Matt. 7:7, “Ask and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Phil. 4:6 teaches us how to handle worry, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” What about the encouragement in I Thess. 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.” (NASB)
Sometimes we find ourselves praying the same way, for the same thing, and maybe even not knowing what to say. It is as though we are stuck in our childhood prayer routine, praying only for our food and for our protection, not quite developing the discipline of prayer. The A.C.T.S. prayer format provides help in our understanding of prayer. To include components of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication in our prayer not only expands our prayer vocabulary but also teaches us how to pray: to acknowledge who God is and let Him know how much we love Him, to recognize and confess our sins and failures so we can receive God’s forgiveness and reassurance, to let Him know how thankful we are for all He has done and do for us, and to pray for those we love, for those who need our intercession, and that God’s will to be done in our lives.
Sometimes, praying foregoes any pre-formatted intentions. When you are anxious, when you are desperate, when you are angry, or when you are deeply hurt, sometimes what only makes sense is to pray like the psalmist, “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!” (Psalm 130:1-2) as “deep calls to deep” (Ps. 42:7). In times like these, when the words don’t readily come, I just pour over psalm after psalm and meditate on them. When despair overcomes me, I also remember to pray, “Lord, come quickly!”
How is your prayer life? If you don’t have one yet, begin today! It will get you through the rest of the day. It will get you through both the good and bad of life, for indeed, God is great and God is good!
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