Day 1: Structure

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.”
Matthew 6:7 (NLT)

Often times we may find it difficult to pray because we’re not sure what to pray or how to remain focused. Our minds wander and we may lack the words to express what we want to say, so we awkwardly repeat what we’re saying with different words, then end the prayer in discouragement as we feel we didn’t have a meaningful time with God.

One effective strategy to keep our minds focused is called the “ACTS” Prayer model. Each letter represents a different part of the prayer:

Adoration (worship)

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication (requests)

Structuring your prayer time this way will help you to come back when your mind begins to wander, and give you a purpose as you come to God’s throne room. It reminds us of who God is when we pray, and we won’t just come to Him as a genie to grant our requests. This also works well because the focus is no longer on our “to do” list, but rather it helps us focus on God and our relationship to Him. Only ¼ of the time is spent on ourselves, while the rest is on God.

Speak to Him now in this structure.

If it helps you to stay focused, give yourself 2-3 minutes per category before moving on to the next one.