Many people use the acronym A.C.T.S. to organize their daily prayers and periods of religious meditation. Our congregation devotes our Wednesday night gatherings to focused prayer, praise, and scripture reading. This is a handout we developed to use sometimes in those meetings as well as in our personal times of worship and devotion. The song numbers correspond to our hymnals, but most are classic hymns that will be familiar. The information in this handout can be divided and used in a variety of ways to organize many different times of spiritual meditation. -JME
A.C.T.S.
– A Model for Organizing Prayer and Worship
Many people use the acronym A.C.T.S. to organize
their daily prayers.
A stands for adoration
in which we praise and speak well of God.
C is confession
in which we admit our faults and our need for God’s grace.
T is thanksgiving
in which we express gratitude for God’s blessings in our lives.
S stands for supplication
in which we ask God for the help and blessings we need.
Adoration: A Prayer of Praise, adapted from Psalm 145
We will extol you, our God and King, and bless your name
forever and ever. Every day we will bless you and praise your name forever and
ever. You are great and greatly to be praised. Your greatness is unsearchable. Help
us as we meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous
works. Help us as we sing of your abundant goodness and of your righteousness.
Father, you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love. You are good to everyone. Your mercy is over
everything you have made. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion
over everyone and everything endures throughout time and eternity. You are
faithful in what you say and kind in what you do. You hold us up when we are weak,
and you lift us up when we fall. You are near to all who call upon you. You
hear the prayers of those who fear you, and you bless them. You preserve all
who love you, but all the wicked you will destroy. We will praise your
greatness and your goodness forever and ever in the name of our Savior, Jesus.
Pick two:
1 – Holy, Holy, Holy
|
27 – Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
|
21 – Praise The Lord
|
56 – All Creatures Of Our God and
King
|
Optional
Reading – For use in private or family periods of devotion
Exodus 34:5-8
Psalm 139
Psalm 145
Psalm 148
Isaiah 40:9-31
Confession: A Prayer of Contrition, adapted from Daniel 9
and Psalm 51
O Lord, you are the great God who keeps covenant and
steadfast love with all who love you and keep your commandments. Even when we are
faithless, you remain faithful. We have sinned and done wrong and acted
wickedly and rebelled against your will. So many times we have fallen short. We
have failed to listen to your word. We have lived our lives in selfishness and
arrogance, and we have not given you the glory you deserve. We have failed to
lead our children. We have told them what to do, but we haven’t shown them real
godliness in our homes and lives. We have failed to love our spouses. We have
taken for granted those you have given us to love and share life with us. We
have failed to love each other. We have allowed business and bitterness to
cause us to neglect the needs of your children. We have failed to care for the
needy. We have allowed prosperity to become arrogance and have convinced
ourselves there isn’t real need around us.
Lord, please forgive us. Create a clean heart and renew a
steadfast spirit within us. Do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Restore the
joy of our salvation, that it may prompt praise and renewed devotion to your
work and word. Thank you for the cleansing power of your Son’s blood and for
his sacrifice on our behalf, without which we could not come near you.
Pick two:
300 – I Am Coming, Lord
|
330 – Just As I Am
|
321 – Jesus, I Come
|
332 – I Surrender All
|
Optional
Reading – For use in private or family periods of devotion
Ezra 9:5-15
Psalm 32
Psalm 51
Daniel 9:3-19
Romans 7:13-25
Thanksgiving: A Prayer of Gratitude
Kind Father, you have been good to us in ways that surpass
our awareness and ability to comprehend. We came into this world with nothing,
and we will leave it in the same condition. But you have blessed us during this
earthly life with strength, opportunities, wealth, and comforts far beyond what
we need or deserve. We know, Father, there are many, and always have been, who
do not enjoy the abundance we take for granted every day. We also know we
sometimes allow our wants to blind us to how richly blessed we are. We want to
be more aware of our blessings, and we give you thanks knowing every good thing
in our lives is from you.
Thank you for the measure of health and strength we have
been given. Thank you for our families, for those that we love and who love us
and are good to us. Thank you for our children. They give us a chance to
imagine how you must love us. Thank you for our brethren. It is so good to have
believers with whom to share life and worship. Thank you for our homes and jobs
and the prosperity we enjoy, even in these difficult economic times. Thank you
for the peace we have enjoyed within our borders. Thank you for the safety in
which we generally live. Thank you for our freedoms and for the leaders who
govern us. Please help them to govern in harmony with your will.
Most of all thank you for your love and grace and
salvation. Thank you for sending Jesus to this earth to live and to die for our
sakes. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to convict, comfort, and guide us.
Thank you for revealing your word and preserving it in the Bible. Thank you for
giving us spiritual life when we were dead in sin. Thank you for the hope of
eternal life and fellowship in your Son. Thank you for every good thing. Thank
you for being a good and loving God. We do not deserve it, but we are grateful.
We thank you in Jesus’ name.
Pick two:
24 – For The Beauty Of The Earth
|
23 – Great Is They Faithfulness
|
10 – We Thank Thee, Lord
|
478 – The Lord Has Been Mindful Of
Me
|
Optional
Reading – For use in private or family periods of devotion
Psalm 23
Psalm 100
Psalm 103
Psalm 136
Ephesians 1:3-14
Supplication: A Prayer of Petition
Great and loving Father, thank
you for giving us the avenue of prayer in which to spend our days and share our
petitions and needs with you. We know that you know everything we need, more perfectly
than we do. We pray that you would bless us according to your will, because you
know what is best for each of us. We pray that you would help us that our will
might be to do your will, and that your will might become our own.
Gracious Father, please forgive
those who hate and wrong us. Do good to those who do good, and bless those who
have blessed your people. Please grant our brethren and loved ones their
prayers, and bring them safely to salvation and eternal life. Visit those who
are afflicted and heal them. Travel with us when we travel, and keep our loved
ones safe from harm. Please strengthen the weak, comfort the grieving, correct
the wayward, and chasten the willful, that we all might live in harmony with
your will.
Remember us, Lord, your sinful
and unworthy servants. Enlighten our minds with the light of your truth and
direct our footsteps in the path of your commandments. Draw us closer to you
and strengthen our desire for and delight in your fellowship. We seek your
blessing, O God, for you are most blessed forever. In Jesus’ name.
Pick two:
74 – Abide With Me
|
68 – Lord We Come Before Thee Now
|
61 – Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
|
589 – As The Deer
|
Optional
Reading – For use in private or family periods of devotion
Psalm 25
Psalm 90
Psalm 91
Ephesians 1:15-23
Ephesians 3:14-21
