"The 'ACTS' of Prayer"


Welcome to worship!  This morning’s service will be a prayer meeting, and will follow a different order of worship than usual.  We will be using a familiar model of praying using the acronym ACTS for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.


ADORATION
Psalm 145:8-10

John Calvin gives us some of the best teaching on prayer that can be found anywhere.  He distills his teaching down to six reasons and four rules.  So this morning, we will explore these six reasons and four rules throughout this prayer service.  

Note: Presented here are paraphrases and greatly abbreviated versions of Calvin’s teaching on prayer.  A full version of these rules and reasons for prayer can be found online on sites such as:  
  http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Other%20Writings/john_calvin_and_the_life_of_prayer.htm

Calvin’s first two reasons and his first rule guide us in this category of Adoration:
Reason One: We are to pray in order “that our hearts may be fired with a zealous and burning desire ever to seek, love and serve [God], while we become accustomed in every need to flee to him as to a sacred anchor.”  

Reason Two: We are to pray in order that our hearts, preoccupied with the Kingdom and its righteousness, might never be distracted or deflected, might never be co-opted for anything less than the King himself.  .
Calvin’s first rule of prayer helps us in this category of adoration as well:  

Rule One: We must “have our hearts and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into conversation with God.”  We must “lay aside all carnal thoughts and cares which might interfere with the pure contemplation of God.”

Adoration is not so much praising God for what He has done for you.  That comes when we enter into the thanksgiving section later on.  Adoration is praising the person and character of God.  It emphasizes who God is more than what He does or has done.  


CONFESSION
Psalm 32:1-5

Surely as we acknowledge God’s majesty, we are reminded of our smallness.  As we proclaim God’s goodness, our faith is empowered.  As we declare God’s sovereignty, we are humbled in our dependence.  As we encounter God’s holiness, we recognize our sinfulness, and we can do nothing else but fall on our faces before our holy Lord in brokenness, in godly sorrow, in confession and repentance.

As we prepare to enter into the next category of prayer—that of confession, let me read Calvin’s second and third rule of prayer:
Rule Two: When we pray we must be aware of our insufficiency.  

Rule Three: “He who comes into the presence of God must be divested of all vainglorious thoughts.  In fine, supplication for pardon, with humble and ingenuous confession of guilt, forms both the preparation and commencement of right prayer…. The requisite of legitimate prayer is repentance.”


THANKSGIVING
Philippians 4:4-6

Listen to Calvin’s third reason for prayer:
Reason Three: “We are to pray in order that our hearts may ever be attuned to thanksgiving, since we know that every blessing comes from God.”  

Matt 6:8 reveals that our heavenly Father already knows what we need before we ask.  So why then does He also invite us, even command us to ask?  God invites us to ask, not because He needs to be informed of our needs, not because He has to be nagged until He gives in, not because our prayers somehow change the mind of God,
  - but because in praying we rightfully acknowledge our dependency upon God,
  - our hearts our moved to the rightful posture of humility, brokenness, and utter helplessness,
  - so that when God gives us what He longs to give us, what He was planning on giving us all along, there can be no doubt as to the source of blessing, so that we do not claim any credit, nor forget to be thankful.  

John Calvin tells us that “thanksgiving is the central posture of the Christian’s heart.” As adoration is praising our heavenly Father & our Loving Lord for who He is, thanksgiving is the giving of thanks for all He has done.  

This morning, we are going to demonstrate our thanksgiving to God through the act of giving of our tithes and offerings, and through the act of giving thanks to God for the gift of faithful servant-leaders through the ordination and installation of our new elders and deacons.  


SUPPLICATION
John 15:4-11

From a Reformed Theology perspective, we must reject any teaching that in any way presents prayer as a work.  Prayer is not a work, but a means of grace.  Prayer is an intimate conversation with our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  Our God is an all-sufficient, all-powerful, sovereign God who willfully chooses to use our prayers!  God invites us to pray because (1) God wants us to experience the joy of intimate relationship with the Trinity and (2) God wants us to experience the inexpressible joy of partnering with the Trinity as they bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.

Listen to the remaining Rules and Reasons for prayer of John Calvin:
Rule Two includes:  We must “only ask for those things that we have a sincere and ardent desire to obtain.”  In other words, don’t pray for something unless you want it will all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
 
Reason Four: We are to pray in order to enhance our spiritual alertness as we are increasingly enabled to recognize answers to prayer.  In other words, we should pray not only for a particular answer, but also for the discernment to even recognize the answer.  

Reason Five: We are to pray in order that we may delight still more in all that we know our praying has obtained for us.  In other words, the more we pray, the more blessings we obtain, and this fosters a life of gratitude and joy!

Reason Six: We are to pray in order that we may confirm God’s generosity and care for us “by use and experience.”   In other words, the more we pray, the closer our relationship becomes with the Trinity, and the more blessings we obtain, which fosters a deeper level of faith, hope, and love

John Calvin said, “Nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith.”  Also included in Rule Four is this assurance: “Knowing that God is a merciful, Father, we must always pray with confident hope.”

Better yet, this is the assurance we have from another person whose initials are JC, namely Jesus Christ:
John 15:7:  “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

1 John 3:21: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commandments and do what pleases Him.”

1 John 5:14:  “And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

John 16:23-24: “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

Mark 11:24-25:  “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

In summary then: Prayer changes our heart not God’s.  It aligns our heart with the will of God, breaks our heart so that we are a humble, dependent people, and prepares our heart to receive God’s answer no matter what it may be with gratefulness giving Him all the glory.