The ACTS Model for Praying
Many have found it helpful to break their prayer time up into different phases or focuses.
The “A” stands for adoration.
Try focusing the first portion of your prayers on adoring God for who he is and giving him honor and glory.
The “C” stands for confession.
A very basic part of prayer is self-examination and coming clean before God about our sin, confessing it, and then turning from it.
The “T” stands for thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving involves thanking God for who he is and what he has done.
The “S” stands for supplication, which involves bringing
our requests before God.
This is where you bring your needs and others needs before God in faith. God delights in blessing us. It is not selfish to lift our lives up to Him for help. In fact, to fail to do so it to guarantee a life lived by the power of the flesh.
Of course, you don’t always have to pray in this order. Many of the Psalmists started where they were in their situation or their thoughts. So, don’t let this become mechanical.
However, starting with a focus on God can help put the rest of our prayers into perspective. When we magnify God our problems shrink.