Prayer Structure

What's all included in your prayers? Is it just asking in order to get out of a tight situation? Or is there more to your praying?

Beginning with this posting, I want to cover four facets of prayer. They are known under the acronym of ACTS, which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

The first one is "adoration." When you begin prayer, do you spend some time simply adoring God? By beginning prayer in this way, you are acknowledging the greatness of God. You are making clear that one you are addressing is your Creator and the one who has given you all good things. You will realize that receiving an answer for your prayer comes from someone you admire.

I believe that when we fail to have any adoration for God in our praying, we see our activity of praying just as being transactional: we pray and God answers. We do the minimum necessary in order to get from God what we want.

When we do include adoration, we notice that the relationship to God is just as important as our asking. We show our reverence and respect for God.

The next time you are praying, if you don't already do it, spend some time giving praise to God for who God is. I guarantee you, you will feel better as you conclude your prayer.