Hello friend and beloved reader!
Welcome back to the Sunday Series. This week I am writing from a bonafide laptop, and yes, it feels good to not be writing this from a smartphone LOL.
Today we will be discussing how I pray! I know that prayer can often seem daunting and confusing, especially when just starting out: it can be difficult to even know WHY a person should pray, or what purpose it serves. So today, let's discuss how I pray, and hopefully shed some light on how to go about method-prayer in a way that can actually benefit your life and grow you closer with the Lord.
So I began my morning today by reading in Numbers. I don't look at the Pentateuch nearly as much as I should, but lately I've been trying to diversify my Bible reading. Today's reading was focused on the commandments regarding sacrifice in Numbers 6:14.
Now, before Christ died for our sins and gave us the opportunity to repent from our sins and receive the promise of eternal life, the only way to offer repentance for sins was through the practice of sacrifice.
As I read today in the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to do three sacrifices: the first for God, the second for their sins, and the third to ask for God's blessing.
This was the way that they could correctly communicate with God, receive His forgiveness, and ask for His favor. I usually don't pay too much attention to the sacrificial commands in the Old Testament, but today, my mind made a connection between the commandments regarding sacrifice, and how I go about my daily prayers.
See, the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice in a specific order, and Jesus himself taught us how to pray in a specific order as well, by using the Lord's prayer. Christ specifically outlined a method of prayer that begins with adoration towards God, followed by confession, thanksgiving, and THEN our requests.
The method of sacrifice and the Lord's prayer are similar to the Lord's prayer, but also to the prayer method that I follow, known as the the "ACTS" prayer style, or the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication style of prayer.
I love praying like this because it causes a few things to happen...
Firstly, when we begin our prayer by showing our adoration for God and honoring him with our words, we can start our prayer with a humble spirit that shows recognition of WHO we are speaking to. There is major gravity in speaking to the God of the Universe, and we must not overlook this when we begin praying.
It's important to have the right mindset when we enter prayer, so that we can show our adoration and respect for God. When we start out our prayer by praising the Lord and recognizing his Holy sovereignty, we can enter into the humble mindset that is necessary for our communication with God.
Secondly, when we follow that adoration with confession and repentance, we are able to make things right with God and acknowledge our sins before Him.
The sin in our lives and hearts is what separates us from his Holiness, but thankfully Christ made a way through his death. However, we can only receive this forgiveness through our repentance of our sins, and a commitment to live in obedience to God and away from sin. It is important to begin our prayer with repentance and confession because we must get that sin out of the way in order to communicate with God and grow closer to Him.
Thirdly, it is important to spend time thanking God for what he has done in our lives.
If we move straight from confession into our requests, we can become forgetful of how has provided for us in the past. I can become so forgetful of His faithfulness that it is truly shameful when I realize all he has done for me. Taking time to thank God for answered prayers, daily blessings, and His love in our life helps us cling to our faith in His plan and His goodness in our lives.
Thanking God is crucial because it again humbles us, but it also restores us to faith that He is good, caring, and capable. Spend time thanking God in prayer and you will begin to notice blessings that you never might have before.
Finally, the last part is bringing our requests to God.
Now, this part must be last because we cannot go to God and ask him for what we need if we are not also in repentance before him. God truly cares about our needs and wants us to thrive, but we cannot do that with sin hanging around.
Present your requests to God last after everything has been cleared up, AND after you've thanked him for other answered prayers. Spend as much time as you need telling Him about your day, your life, your needs, or your concerns. Use this time to share your heart with him and to rest in the fact that He is a Good Good Father and is eager to show you love and provide for you.
God will protect you, but you must ask. Don't view your requests as trivial or unworthy of His attention: God wants us to bring all our supplications to him, so do not fear that He will get bored of you.
In total, remember that you don't need to have a super rigid praying style, but it's also not good to get too relaxed and forget that you are talking to the Creator of the Universe.
God is a Good Father and is eager to hear the cries of His people, but never forget that you must also live a life full of repentance and obedience to Him.
I hope this was helpful, but if not, check out some of the resources I have linked below, and in the meantime, I hope you have a prayerful day my friends.
xoxo,
Cait
Resources for praying ACTS: