FALL 2015 OC CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE Fall 2015 OC Christian Free magazine | Page 20

Family
Living

PRAYERS

Prayer
The Discipline of

By Mike Lutz

Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I had a better prayer
life,” “I don’t pray often enough,” “I don’t pray long enough,” or
“I can’t seem to keep my mind focused when I pray”? Oswald
Chambers, known for his devotional My Utmost for His
Highest said, “The battle of prayer is against two things: . . .
wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God’s character
as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they
can be cured by discipline.”

T

hat is exactly what prayer is, prayer is a discipline
that must be practiced in order for us to grow deeper
in our relationship with God. While prayer is simply
having a conversation with God, one thing is certain:
everyone can pray more, can pray more specifically, and can
pray more for others.
Famed Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Our
ultimate position as Christians is tested by the character of our
prayer life.” And it was the great American evangelist D. L
Moody, who, when he was asked at the end of his life if there
was anything he would have done differently, responded, “I
would have prayed more!”
If you have not yet made prayer a regular part of your
Christian life than you can start moving in that direction
today. Perhaps you are a mature Christian and you know how
important prayer is, but you have allowed the busyness of life
to distract you from making prayer a priority. Wherever you
are on the prayer meter, the fact of the matter is we can all
improve our prayer life.
One very effective way to become more consistent,
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disciplined, and purposeful when you pray is to use the
acrostic, ACTS, which can help bring specificity to your
prayers. In order to use the ACTS model simply start your
prayer time with the letter a, which stands for adoration.
Adoration is where you express your praise, exaltation, and
worship of God. It is expressing your affection for who God is
and what He does, and this is often made easier by focusing on
the attributes of God. Adoration isn’t the time to start asking
God for stuff. Just allow yourself time to express your love and
respect toward God here.
Next comes the letter c for confession. This is a time
of asking God for the forgiveness of sins that you have
committed and for seeking the strength to turn from and resist
those sins in the future. Sin hinders our relationship with
God, and confession helps bring healing and restoration to
that relationship. Be specific, God already knows your sins so
you are not going to shock or surprise Him by confessing your
deepest darkest sins, in fact verbalizing your sins to God can
help give you a better awareness of your weaknesses so that
you might better avoid those problem areas in the future.
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