Matthew 6:9-13 -
"This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in Heaven
hallowed be your name
your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive our debts
As we have forgiven our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one."
I know a lot of people do some sort of automatic prayer before they eat dinner. We usually pray this prayer without even thinking about it, word for word. Well, we don't have to pray this specific prayer. Even though Jesus says, "This is how you should pray," does not mean that you have to pray every word that is in the prayer. God wants our prayers to be more personal. There is a good acronym that helps you pray the way God intended you to, but to also to make it personal. It's called A.C.T.S.
Adoration- Praising God for who he is.
Confession- Asking God to forgive you of the sins you did.
Thanksgiving- Thanking God for what he has done in your life or others.
Supplication- Asking God for things that involve you or others.
I've always thought it was funny that they put the order as it is. Maybe they did it intentionally, maybe they didn't. When the prayer starts in the beginning, it is God centered. As the prayer goes on, it becomes more self-centered. It makes sense, too. When you pray, you should be putting God first. He is the creator of the world, right? And as you saw in the video yesterday, we are very small, so we go last. God matters more than humans. We usually only pray when something goes wrong. That is the S. When do we ever pray the A.C. and T? They go first, they're more important. It seems like we only care about us, it's that selfish side again. We need to make room to praise God wherever and whenever we go. Using the A.C.T.S method is quite long, but well worth it. We need to make room to pray to God, not only at meal time, but every second possible! I've been doing it. Now you try it.
