Practically Praying: What to Pray
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
2 March 2003

It was in his famous book “with Christ in the School of prayer” that Andrew Murray, the famous late 19th and early 20th Century Scottish Christian speaker and writer, spoke of Jesus Christ “opening a school” in which he invites his children to enrol so that they may be trained to pray.

A SCHOOL FOR PRAYER
I have sensed, as the present series PRACTICALLY PRAYING has developed, a more than usual attentiveness and appreciation of what’s being dealt with. This may due to the manner of the teaching - that the focus has been less on the theory and doctrine and more on the practical outworking of faith - getting on with it, doing it, living it our, putting it into practice.

People’s attentiveness and appreciation may be to do with the manner or the teaching. But it’s maybe due to the matter of it - the substance and the subject as well!

And I trust that your appetite has been sharpened and a desire awakened in many of you to get to know God better.

It was hugely encouraging last week when so many enquired about some of the books on display at the front offering a variety of devotional aide - books to help you listen to God and speak with Him in your life.

During this series I believe God has given us a renewed sense of what being “disciples” of Jesus Christ means.I mentioned in the service last Sunday night that my favourite paraphrase of that common Bible word for a believer in the New Testament is “L -plate Christian” - because that’s just what it really means - “learners.” The first followers of Jesus were called “disciples” - learners - and we are following in their steps.

Week by week we have, as it were, gathered around Jesus and sitting humbly at His feet we have echoed the disciples’ request, “Lord teach us to pray” - and He has and He is!! “I found that so helpful” one person remarked last week - and a visitor confided “I found that really helpful.”

ON HOW TO PRAY

PRAYING AT ALL TIMES
The last two services have been on ‘How to pray” - In the first we covered the practicalities of integrating prayer with life - ways of releasing prayer from its religious box - letting it be something as real to us in the market-place as the holy-place. Letting our friendship with God (the friendship with Him we enjoy with Him as Jesus’ gift) change from something something clandestine, occasional and covert into something that seasons the whole of life. We covered the importance of realising that there’s no special language of prayer.

I remember a young woman who was a new Christian coming to see me after one of the little times of prayer that we had in groups in my first church - in trembling and fear she had uttered her first public prayer - it was brief and stammered - inarticulate compared to others. And after the group ha ended she cam to me in tears, apologising for what she called her “awful prayer” -”it was just awful” she sobbed. But what that prayer lacked in polish it so much made up for in its sweetness and power - it was perhaps the most moving prayer I have ever heard!!

“God does not consider the grammar of prayer, nor the metaphysics of it, nor the rhetoric but takes pleasure in our stammering words....”

We thought also about how short a step it is to turn our feelings into prayers - so that “How beautiful!” can so easily become “Lord, how beautiful” or “How awful to see that” can with such little effort be “Lord, help that woman not to mistreat her child” or, as we watch the TV, “Lord, help the United Nations to get it right” or “Lord, give these hungry people food.”

And I said something about what, with others, I call “arrow prayers” - so that, seeing someone you know walking along the pavement while you’re driving up Morningside Road (but preferably without closing your eyes!) you pray for them.

Prayer is for all of life and letting prayer “season” all of life opens the door to double blessing - the blessing of yourself and also the blessing of those for whom you pray.

PRAYING AT SET TIMES
Last week in the second service on HOW to pray, our focus moved from praying at all times to praying at set times. - organising a regular, usually daily, time to listen to God and speak with Him - what’s traditionally called a “quiet time”...
we looked at physical location and posture - where and in what position; we looked at when’s best and how long (or how short, initially) your daily time with God might be.

And most encouragingly - you were almost queuing up at the end of the service to order the book I focussed on and recommended - Billy Graham’s “Day by Day”.

TODAY’S SUBJECT: WHAT TO PRAY
This morning we’re going to look at WHAT to pray - “Pray for what you want!” one person urges,
“Pray for what you need” another says. It’s natural when we begin at first to think about prayer that we ask questions about what to pray FOR..

It is true that Jesus taught his disciples to ask God for things “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you....” but prayer is FAR MORE than presenting our shopping list of requests upon the counter of God’s holiness. Prayer isn’t some kind of celestial vending machine!!

Today we are going to look at the nuts and bolts of WHAT TO PRAY. The advice I was given when I made my commitment to Jesus Christ 40 years ago - and perhaps many of you remember it too - that there were four elements in prayer - to be remembered by using the acronym ACTS - as in the Book of Acts!:

A...C...T...S
The A stands for adoration - the praise or worship of God. The best examples of the praise or worship of God are to be found in the book of Psalms.

The C stands for CONFESSION - admitting our wrongs to God, confessing our sin, awaiting and embracing His forgiveness.

The T stands for thanksgiving. Acknowledging the debt we owe God and thanking Him for his great generosity. In one of his books Stuart Briscoe put this neatly. He says “Christians should have a gratitude attitude”

Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and then, finally SUPPLICATION - this is the praying for” bit of prayer, the asking bit - praying for yourself and praying for others.. Praying for yourself is sometimes in Christian books on prayer called petition, and praying for others, is of course intercession.

A for Adoration. C for Confession. T for Thanksgiving. S for Supplication - ACTS!

This is one way of combining the different elements in prayer - it’s simple. It’s memorable - the acronym ACTS helps you to remember with ease each element in turn and it;s well tried. It’s served me and countless others in the early years of their Christian life. But two words of caution:

WORDS OF CAUTION
1. Wear it loosely. Don’t let it become a straight jacket - as longs as it enables your prayers life, use it; when it begins to disable it - find some other way!!

2. The order in which these elements come in your time of prayer may vary according to your mood and circumstances. For example, there will be times when it is easy for you to praise God and worship Him. You sense his closeness, his love enfolds you. His kindness overwhelms you - it’s easy to say “Lord, you’re wonderful!”

But it’s important to be honest in prayer, and there will be times when you don’t sing with Psalm writer “I praise you my loving God” but sob with the Psalm writer “My hearts in anguish..I am distraught!”

At other times confession must come first - because we need to tell god how we’ve failed and, pondering the love that sent Jesus to die for our sins, seek His forgiveness. Or there’s someone for whom we ought to pray - someone for whom we want to pray and need to pray - and when that’s the case, that’ll come first - - honesty is more important than order,..

As a child bursts through the door at the end of the school day or runs to it when she hears the key turn in the lock at the end of the day, crying “Mummy, mummy!...” or “Daddy, you know what I did today...’ so God wants us to come openly, honestly, naturally to him......

When it comes to WHAT to pray - a healthy prayer life should include all the ELEMENTS I’ve mentioned:

1. ADORATION
Adoration, confession, thanksgiving - and then under supplication comes petition = praying for ourselves and intercession = praying for others.

Remember that though I’m going to deal with them one by one separately,you can combine them in different ways and they may sometimes merge.

Let’s look at ADORATION first. The praise and worship of God - although this is put first it is for many the most difficult part of prayer and some advice on how to go about it may be welcomed.

. First, listening TO God - through meditating on a Bible promise or listening to what a Bible passage has to tell you about Him can greatly help. Praise and worship comes out of the contemplation of who God is, what God has done for you and all that God promises you. It will be cold and mechanical apart from this. ADORATION is in its nature responsive.

This is why it is generally best to begin you time with God by quietly settling -going through any little ritual that maybe helps you to do that - and then after a brief prayer asking God to be with you - to meet you, to speak to you and give you an open heart - it’s best to begin by LISTENING rather than SPEAKING. Of course busyness is the great enemy here and haste will be fatal

. Second, you will find “fuel for praise” in ALL the Bible teaches about God and reveals to us of his heart and purpose to bless us in Jesus! But many people find the book of Psalms an especially ready source of “kindling” for praise and adoration.

If you you use a devotional aid - like Billy Graham’s “Day by Day”for example - it will probably offer suggestions for praise. And then there are collections of Bible verses for each day offered in publications like the classic “Daily Light” which you may find help.

. Third, you will find “fuel for praise” not only in God’s words in scripture but in God’s works in nature - in the beauty of a flower, the majesty of mountains, the laughter of a child.....for as Emil Brunner, the great theologian once put in “the world with a million fingers points towards God”

There is an aptness in placing ADORATION first when you pray because in praise and worship we stop focussing inwards on self and start focussing upwards, on GOD. “Praise de-centralises self.”

2. CONFESSION
Then there is confession. The daily confessing of our wrongs to God is an important part of our spiritual “housekeeping” The best way to keep your house clean and tidy is to deal with any mess promptly.
A brief visit to most student flats will provide ample evidence that unless dishes are washed up after each meal - or at least at the end of each day - there soon isn’t a clean cup mug plate or pot in the whole flat. And it’s the same with your laundry and everything else!!

John Henry Newman says:
“Never suffer sin to remain upon you; let it not grow old in you; wipe it off while it if fresh else it will stain; let it not eat its way in and rust in you....

Confession is an important part of our daily time with God. It involves telling God where we’ve gone wrong, hurts others, been selfish or broken his commands. There are sins of “omission” to confess as well as sins of “commission” - not just the wrong things we have done but the good things we haven’t done.

In confession it’s easy to be general, but it helps to be specific - to confront the spiteful thought, unkind word, the inconsiderate act - this means confession must cause - to a degree discomfort. In his book on prayer E M Blaiklock says this:

“This period of our devotions must contain a moment of pain. It is not God;s intention that we should writhe under it or linger in it..but let evil in conduct thought or motive be brought out into the open, fully, without excuse and under proper names.....it is of no use... to pose before God.”

If the pain of the honest ownership of our sins is part of confession, so is the wonder, the joy, the exhilarating release of forgiveness:

The Bible says “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity....” God’s forgiveness isn’t mean or niggardly, it isn’t halfhearted! - it comes from the staggering wealth of his undeserved kindness to us.

Daily to confess to God and keep a clean sheet - daily to repent of evil, to turn away from evil and towards what’s right and pure and true; daily to seek and receive the forgiveness of God which flows blood-red from the cross -is daily to drink at the fountain of life.
CONFESSION

3. THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving comes next (A...C...T...S). In all of life we should be grateful. Christians should have a gratitude attitude. The whole life should be a song of praise - an act of thanksgiving to God.

But in this element of our daily time with God we offer thanks we can give thanks:
. for the common mercies which we so easily take for granted - the food we eat and the
water we drink; the homes we live in and the clothes we wear; the opportunity to work and
earn money, the opportunity for leisure and and pleasure too; for family and friends; for
church and worship, for fellowship and kindnesses....
‘Count your blessings name them one by one,
count your blessings see what God has done,
‘Count your blessings name them one by one,
and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done...”

. for special mercies. For answered prayer! Someone scathingly said that God really likes
our “thank-you’s” because he gets so few of them. In Jesus’ story of the ten men with
a dreaded skin disease he healed only one turned back to give thanks!!
Give thanks for special mercies - for answered prayer, for what has been special to you in
the day that has past, since you last came to God.
. for spiritual mercies - for the guidance the Bible gives; the promises of God and His
faithfulness; for a love that once died in Christ and is now undying; for the Spirit’s help.

Doing this has a practical affect - it changes us into more appreciative and generous people. It helps us see things differently. My favourite example of this is Matthew Henry’s the famous 18th century scholar and Bible commentators prayer after being accosts by thieves and robbed of his wallet:
“Lord,” he prayed “I am thankful first, because I was never robbed before, second, because although they took my wallet they didn’t take my life; third, that although they took all my money it wasn’t much; and fourth, I thank you that it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed...”

Our daily time with God should include thanksgiving! Even when life seems tough and the ties against us there is much to thank God for!!

4. SUPPLICATION
Adoration...Confession....Thanksgiving....and then finally SUPPLICATION. This can be divided into petition - which is praying for myself and intercession, which is praying for others. This is the ASKING bit in prayer:

i) PETITION
It’s a good idea when you pray for yourself not just to ask for the first thing that comes into your head or to pray randomly.. it’s much better to distinguish between what you WANT and what you NEED and then pray for the latter!!

Maybe its patience at work with someone who really gets on your nerves Maybe its the discipline to read the Bible each day or the strength to resist a temptation that’s a problem for you; maybe its to spend more time with your children or the grace to forgive someone who’s hurt you; maybe its the strength of character to be more open as a Christian; to be a better Elder; to not let people down so much; maybe its not to be so lazy or wastes so much time; maybe its the courage to face an illness to bear some trial or the faith to trust God in a time of uncertainty.

And the Bible teaches us to ask in faith, without doubting - this means, in petition, being open to God changing you, being ready to let HIM make the difference. He does! He can make all the difference in the world!!

ii) INTERCESSION
Which brings me to INTERCESSION. Sometimes, without thinking, a Christians offer to pray for someone in trouble or for some serious need is accompanied by the comment: “It’s the least I can do.’ Burt the opposite is the case!!

The most important thing we can do for others is PRAY for them. And in our daily time with God this must have its place Here are three practicable suggestions:

1. Make use of the Prayer Circular!!. I’ve already mentioned this and I’ve had letters from people outside of our own church saying how much it helps them in their prayers for others.

2. When it comes to family and friends divide them up so that you can pray at greater length for certain individuals on a particular day. For example:
your parents on a Sunday, your children on a Monday, your other relatives on a Tuesday;
friends at work on a Wednesday; church friends on Thursday; friends at your gym or
sports club on Friday, your enemies on a Saturday.

3, Pray the daily NEWS - take the newspaper into your special time with god as well as your Bible! Or here’s an idea (why not try this!) - when you're listening to the news on TV and seeing what’s happening in the world, turn what you SE into prayer! This gives a whole new meaning to Jesus’ command to his first disciples “watch and pray”!! It might mean moving this aspect of praying for others from your daily special time with God, but you might find it very helpful!

We’ve considered praying at all times and praying at set time. When this CONTINUES in a fortnight’s time we’ll be looking at PROBLEMS IN PRAYER and I want to preach a final sermon on PRAYING WITH OTHER PEOPLE.

Amen