“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4 NASB)
What makes rejoicing possible?
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NASB)
“Prayer is not equal to requests. Prayer includes requests when accompanied by thanksgiving indicating faith in God’s sovereignty and His providence and contentment with what God has provided.” Pastor John MacArthur
The A-C-T-S method of prayer is foundational to Prayer Prompter’s approach to “Meditation and Prayer.” R.C. Sproul discussed A-C-T-S in a blog post several years ago. Here is an excerpt.
“Christians often use a simple acrostic as a guide to prayer: A.C.T.S. Each of the letters in this acrostic stands for one of the key elements of prayer:
(A) Adoration
(C) Confession
(T) Thanksgiving
(S) Supplication
I think it is a helpful acrostic for remembering both the elements and the priorities of prayer. Unfortunately, we often spell our prayer life something like S.C.A.T., because we start with supplication and spend very little time, if any, on adoration, confession, and thanksgiving.”
Notice that the image from his post shows the letters in priority order by size. What a great idea!
The complete blog post is available here.
