Let's ACT

Too often in prayer I am lost in my own requests instead of sitting at His Feet in adoration. So I challenged myself for a time to try and make much less of me and much more of Him.

Can I challenge you to something? Something that I’m challenging myself to do …

For those of us in the church, we very likely have heard of praying the “ACTS” method. A creative way to remind us a structure as we come to the LORD in prayer. It’s not magical, it’s not required, but it’s helpful … it stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (in that order)

A way of praying modeled by Jesus Himself in the Lord’s prayer. A structure to focus on God, our need for Him, His Sovereign Hand in our life, and finally, a humble presentation of our own supplications, our needs, our requests, our “daily bread” …

Yet all too often in prayer I am self-focused – such a tendency to rush through praising Him so I can get to my needs (sometimes jumping to my needs straight away!) Yes we can and should present our requests to Him (rightly) as we see in Philippians 4. Yet if we know God and His Word, we can trust that God knows what we need before we even ask! (As Jesus Himself reminds us in Matthew 6).

So – can we make a leap of faith for a time? Just a time? Can we pray … without asking?

Can we … ACT?

Reflect on Him and Him alone … adoring Him, confessing to Him, and thanking Him – not just for “stuff gone right” in our lives, but for Him and Him alone.

This is not a challenge for all time – but just for a period. Maybe even just a day … or a week … or as He leads. Just a time to fast and purge ourselves from the deep rooted seed of pride, narcissism, and self-focus that has us focusing so much on His gifts and provisions and not Him. Oh how we say we are praising the Giver, but all too often we are just thankful for His Gifts if we are honest. We are not the center of the story – we are not the hero – we are not “the Victorious One” - we are the bondservants of Christ. We have been purchased with His Blood … we are His, and not our own.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John 3:30 (ESV)

His,

~Matthew