In my last post (“Encouraging Hurt Believers through God’s Praise”) I talked about why we normally praise God before asking for help when we follow the A.C.T.S. prayer (Adore, Confess, Thank, Supplicate). We don’t have to follow this model to pray to God, and in urgent problems, we cannot follow such a formal style. But something special happens when we do follow that model. Many Bible saints, such as Daniel (9th chapter of Daniel), mostly followed that model when they had time to pray at length. So remember, this is a special prayer for when we have extra time, not when we need to send up a fast prayer to God.
I promised to look at the second part of that prayer, the confession of sins (but I will also discuss the third part here too). Without confession, we cannot get close to God (Isaiah 59:2 “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.”) God can work in our hearts when our next step is to confess our sins to the Lord. Once we see how powerful God is, yet how kind he is, we feel safer telling him how weak and sinful we are (confessing this).
The more honest we are, as we confess our sins, the closer we can get to God. If we ask God for help before we confess our sins, we may ask for things we don’t need (James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”) In the shame of our un-confessed sins, we might also hide our true needs. When we feel guilty or even ashamed with the weight of our sins, we often don’t want to ask for anything. Our guilt and shame dulls our awareness of our needs (Jer. 6:14a “ You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there!”) Furthermore, God will not hear our prayers when we do not confess our sins. He said so in Psalm 66: 18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
Yet when we confess our sins, God removes more than a weight of guilt (1John1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”) God gives us clarity to see our weaknesses and know what weaknesses we need help overcoming. Confession clears our conscience and our minds, (Heb 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”)
In fact, we can more readily follow the third step of that A.C.T.S. prayer when we let go of our sins (to God). God is so faithful, and he readily forgives us. That alone gives us freedom to thank God (the third part of this special prayer). And once we have confessed, felt God’s forgiveness, and then thanked him, we ask for things we truly need. We have the peace of knowing we are obeying God, and we receive power to do more. James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” In that verse, it speaks of our effective prayer, and the fact we can accomplish much. What do we accomplish? After we have thanked God (the third part of that prayer), we can come and ask for things like praying for an unsaved friend. God hears our earnest prayers. We can ask God to enable us to boldly share the Gospel, the way the Apostles prayed in Acts 4:23-31. Then God gave them that boldness, and these apostles shared so boldly, many people were saved. We can ask for healing for ourselves and others (check out my post “Miraculous Healing Today,” regarding healing). There is so much God can do through us.
I will stop here, because this last part of the A.C.T.S. prayer, supplication, has so many exciting aspects, I’d like to develop this idea in more detail in a future post. So wait for that post! Thank you for joining us in this post. It is shorter, but this subject is simple enough I could discuss it briefly. Dig into your Bible, and you will find many other supporting verses about how God uses us in these ways. He has such a great plan for our lives, and I pray, every day, for you my readers, that God would grant you his Shalom (peace and wholeness). We love you!