"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray..." (Luke 11:1)

Talking to God is a supernatural thing, and sometimes--especially for those who are new to the experience--it can be supernaturally difficult. What am I supposed to say? I'm talking to GOD! What would He want to hear from me? I can't see Him...how am I supposed to talk to Him like He's real? These are not unusual thoughts, and unfortunately, there is no one way to pray, and there is no definitive answer to those questions. While Jesus gave us a model for prayer, it still leaves room for confusion.

There is, however, a quick and easy-to-remember way to approach prayer. Just as many of us used memory tools in school to help us remember important things, there is such a tool for prayer. Simply think, ACTS.

A-ADORATION - Tell God that you love Him.

C-CONFESSION - Ask God for forgiveness for specific sins you have committed.

T-THANKSGIVING -Thank God for what He has done for you.

S-SUPPLICATION -Ask God for things you need.

This approach may feel rigid and unnatural, but with practice it will make prayer an easier thing to take on. As it is applied more and more often, prayer will become more natural and, as we all want, our relationships with God will truly begin to grow and flourish. This is not a perfect method by any means, and it may not work for you (as everyone has a different way of talking with God), but hopefully it gives you a better idea of what should happen in prayer and what it is, exactly, that God might want to hear from you.

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"When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers--the moon and stars You have set in place--what are mortals that You should think of us, mere humans that You should care for us?" (Psalm 8:3-4)

What does it mean to "adore" someone or something? Following the lead of our pastor, I checked that out this week. Here's what I found: adore means "to worship, to love intensely, or to hold in extremely high regard." Adoration, likewise, means "the act of paying honor, " or "fervent and devoted love."

We live in a world that "loves" everything from shoes to pizza to our mothers, and it is hard to wrap our minds around what it means to adore someone or something. It's hard to know even how to adore someone, and knowing how to tell them that we adore them is mind-boggling. How, then, can we jump into prayer and immediately tell God that we adore Him?

My answer is this: How do you feel? When You think of God, what do you think of? Whatever it is, tell Him.

The greeting card industry exists because people like to know what other people think of them, and we can think of prayer in a similar way. We can know that God loves us, but until we make a habit of telling Him how much we love Him, our relationship will not be all that it can be. Just as we know that our mothers love us, our relationships with them cannot thrive until they know that we--as their children--love them, too. How can we let them know it? We have to tell them.

It might not sound like a Hallmark card or a Grammy-winning love song. It might be awkward and not very eloquent. You might not even have many words to express what you're thinking, and that's okay. To continue the reference, our mothers don't care if we buy them big, expensive cards or if we write a simple message on a piece of colored paper. The thoughts and the feelings are what are important, and their expression makes all the difference in the world.

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James 5:16 says "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results." Sometimes in our prayer lives it's so easy to get caught up in ourselves and the things we think we need. Confession is often overlooked. Some may question if it's even worth praying, after all, God already knows our sins, doesn't he? True, God knows our faults and he knows our hearts, but to not confess our sins would be the same as a child not confessing something even though the parents already know what the child has done. It's not the fact that you're telling God what you did, it's that you're owning up to something that you know in your heart was wrong.

Without confession, you have regret and conviction. But with confession, you are relieved of your sins and they are forgotten. God loves us and He knows what we do, He just wants us to realize our faults and come to Him with our confessions, and like the scripture says, our earnest prayers have great power and wonderful results. So be real in your prayers, because God is a real God who knows your heart and wants a deep intimate relationship with you, and let Jesus lift your burdening sins away. After all, that is what He died for, to forgive your sins so that we can have this awesome, real relationship with our God.

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"Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation." (Psalm 100:4-5)

How often do you thank God for what He has done? If you're like me, this is one of the hardest things to do. So often, true thoughts of thankfulness are isolated only to one day in November, and even then our thanks are only spoken around the table as a blessing before a feast of turkey and stuffing. This is true for me, and I suspect it is true for many others.

Why is it so hard to thank God for what He has done when we know without a doubt that what we have is all from Him? How can we come to an understanding of His provision and care for us when we live in a society that rewards us based only on our own merit ? How can we thank God when those around us scoff at the idea that our "good fortune" could come from a spiritual realm?

These are questions that we all have to consider. We all have to realize the abundance that surrounds us and endure a paradigm shift before we can truly understand and appreciate that God is the One responsible for it all.

With so much, then, that we should be thankful for, where do we begin thanking in prayer? How should we even start? Something I like to do that helps me to get in an attitude of thanksgiving (when the smell of turkey is not in the air) is to sit with my eyes closed and simply think of my life. People, things, opportunities, jobs, possessions, health.....whatever comes to mind, I thank God for it. This is often very helpful, too, in keeping myself from taking things for granted.

God loves us, and He will take care of us, but He would just like to hear you say "thank you." It's not hard, and it makes you love and appreciate Him so much more.

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"Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to You and wait expectantly." (Psalm 5:3)

Supplication is a big word that basically just means "a request." In prayer, then, supplication would clearly be the time for asking God for something in particular. This is probably the most expected--and abused--aspects of prayer.

What do I mean by that? We have been stressing how important it is to pray, and saying that it is a good thing to talk to God and let Him know what you are concerned about. While this is very true, it simply cannot and should not be the basis of your prayer life.

Imagine having a friend who only called you when he or she needed something. You would dread seeing his number on your caller ID, and would probably hesitate to call him back. Nobody likes to feel taken advantage of or used, and God is no different. While He cares immensely for you and wants to take care of you more than anything, He wants you to know Him. He doesn't want to only be called upon when you are in need, and doesn't want every sentence He hears from you to have the word "please" in it. He wants a relationship with you, and with that in mind, requests and "favors" cannot be the foundation of your spiritual relationship with God.

Lord, I want to know You, and I am thankful that You want to know me, too. Relationship with You is important to me, and I want to do my part to make that happen. Help me make prayer more about getting to know You and less about fulfilling my own desires. Amen

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