When I started to pray more intentionally, I didn’t even know there were different aspects to prayer. I knew to give thanks and to pour my “asks” to the Lord, but that was it. There is a useful acronym A.C.T.S., I later discovered, that can be used to help walk us through the aspects of prayer. Navigators is a wonderful Christian organization that offers several tools to aid in discipleship and evangelism. One of the tools I have shared with others is “The Prayer Hand,” tool which can be found here.
A.C.T.S stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.
Adoration
When we read the Bible, we see many prayers and scriptures that begin with praising God. Thumbing through the book of Psalms, you will see many of them begin with “Praise the Lord…” (Psalm 106, 144, 147-150, to name a few). Solomon’s prayer of dedication to the Temple he built for God began with, “O, Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven above or on earth below. (1 King 8:23).
God is worthy of our adoration and praise. As the creator of heaven and earth, God is due our honor and reverence. There is an air of duty to this aspect that can make praise feel prescriptive, clinical, and even less authentic and genuine. But when I read of the Lord delighting in us, I wanted to delight in Him as I sought to know Him better through prayer and reading my Bible. I remember praying for God to allow me to delight in Him and His Word, which was granted! In experiencing the delight and enjoyment of my time with the Lord, I found adoring God to be a natural component of my prayers. Adore is defined as 1) to regard with the utmost esteem, love, respect, and honor. 2) to pay divine honor to; worship.
Adoration can sound like: “God, You are the alpha and the omega. I may not understand all of why things happen, but I know You are faithful. You are just. You are holy. You are sovereign. You are omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. You are the source of all good and the master of logistics, putting people in each other’s paths at just the right time and in just the right place. You are the only true living God.”
Confession
Salvation is never complete without acknowledgment, confession, and repentance of our sins. Confessing our sins, the very things we do, say, or think that go against God, is a necessary piece of our walk with the Lord. Admitting our wrongs is an act of integrity because we are all sinners; and an act of humility because we are admitting our shortcomings to the One who is perfect, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Reading the Bible convicts us of our sins because it acts like a mirror. We must confess our sins continually, daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Unconfessed and unrepented sin will stand as a barrier in your relationship with the Lord. God’s holiness and very being are incompatible with sin. Sin will prevent you from drawing closer to God. Worse, sin invites the enemy to set up camp in our hearts and build fortresses to obstruct our relationship with God. Sin begets more sin, along with all the consequences.
Years ago, I began using my alone time in the shower to confess my sins and identify all the ones I could think of as I scrubbed the grime off with a washcloth and allowed my sins and grime to wash away down the drain. I asked Jesus for forgiveness and to help me become more like Him in my actions, spoken words, and thoughts. This usually ends in giving praise and thanks for His mercy and salvation offered only through Jesus. Tying in confession to something I do daily that is associated with transitioning from dirty to clean was helpful for me, but that is not the only way. Confession can take place as soon as we feel the conviction in our hearts as we see the cut from an unkind word that escaped from our mouths.
Confession can sound like: “God, please forgive me for my impatience and biting tone towards my husband and daughter. Forgive me for not yielding to your nudge to talk to that co-worker who was in need of a friend. Help me transform my stony heart into a fleshy one that responds eagerly to your presence and holiness.”
Thanksgiving
Gratitude, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects of prayer. Why? Because no matter what the circumstances, naming all the things I am grateful for has this transformative effect on my perspective and outlook. Telling God “thank you” for all the provisions and blessings magnifies my attention on the good and appropriately adjusts my perspective on the bad. One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT), “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Saying “thank you” is more than good manners; it is a heart posture of humility. When we give thanks to God, that heart posture of humility is to the bestower and source of all blessings, provision, and good in our lives.
This can sound like: “Lord, thank you for this new day and the warm, clean bed in which I slept. Thank you for my eyes which see the sun rise over the horizon. Thank you for the blessing of my family. Thank you for your Son who died on the cross for me so that I can be made in right standing with you. I deserve none of it, yet your love is bigger than my imperfections. I thank you, and I love you. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.”
Supplication
The definition of supplicating is to pray humbly; make humble and earnest entreaty or petition. Supplication is asking God for something. When we ask God for something for ourselves, this is called a petition. When we ask God for something on behalf of someone else, this is called intercession. One is not valued or more important than the other. Each has its place in our prayer time. Of all the aspects of prayer, asking God for something is the most familiar prayer. In a crisis, people instinctively go to ask God for help. We touched upon this when we talked about “ditch prayers.” “Ditch prayers” are legitimate and no less worthy of God’s attention. The problem with “ditch prayers” is if the only time we think about God is in crisis to ask for help. It would be like having a family member who only reaches out to speak to you when they are in crisis and need you to help them. God wants a healthy relationship with each of his children.
Supplication can sound like: “Lord, help ____(name of friend, family, person you are praying for). May her focus be on you and not on her circumstances. God, give her the wisdom to know the decisions she needs to make. Remind her that she is not alone. Send your saints, Lord, to encourage her and be her guard rails during this difficult time. Lord, may she experience your peace during this ordeal. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.”
A.C.T.S. is an easy acronym to remember all the aspects of prayer: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Your prayer time does not necessarily need to include all of these parts all the time. When I began to pray every day intentionally, I didn’t include adoration and praise. That part did not come naturally to me. When I learned about adoration and read over and over in the Bible the instances of praise, I realized this was a missing aspect in my prayer time with the Lord. I relegated praise and worship to singing. This wasn’t necessarily wrong. But I wanted to incorporate all aspects of prayer in my prayer time and began intentionally infusing praise into my prayers. This may feel inauthentic or mechanical at first, as does anything new. With time, praising God while praying became more natural. In fact, I have experienced joy in marveling at all the things that make God, God. His glory and holiness alone have left me in awe and sometimes in tears.
How is your prayer life? Is there an aspect that you would like to incorporate more intentionally?