Meditation and Prayer

Meditation and Prayer

Prayer for Christians like us over the years always brings fresh insight and assurance of God's presence in our lives. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit being a counselor who will be with us (John 14:16-17), help, encourage, comfort, and strengthen us in our daily lives. Paul says in Romans 8:26 the Holy Spirit will help us with our weaknesses and pray and intercede on our behalf. The Holy Spirit helps us to refocus our hearts and bring our minds to understand what and how to do the things that need to get done. We become more passionate about what requires to be done.Prayer done habitually empowers us to refresh our hearts and minds. It also unlocks our hearts and minds to fresh ideas and new ways of doing things. 

Meditation and Prayer done on a daily basis both privately and with one's family is an effective way of refocusing our lives from a very self-centered life to a God centered life. The ACTS model, is an acrostic used as a guide for meditation and prayer.

 The ”A” in the ACTS model stands for Adoration. We invite the Spirit of Christ to come into our lives and guide us through the time of prayer and meditation. Jesus told us to start the Lord’s Prayer with adoration for God our Father (Matthew 6:9-10). Paul says we call God, “Abba” a very intimate Name for God (Romans 8:15). It is a time when we express our love for God and lift his name up on high and praise him for all his mighty works of creation. To concentrate better we may sing a chorus or say a psalm (Psalm 9: 1-2 or 66:1-4) or read a passage of scripture (Nehemiah 9:5-6; 2 Samuel 7:22). We turn our eyes away from our worries and concerns, toward God our Father. We adore Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer (Galatians 4:5 ; Ephesians 1:7). We sense the Holy Spirit’s presence moving in our hearts and minds. 

The “C” stands for Confession. We sorrowfully confess all the evil deeds we have done to God. We confess our fears and anxieties to God. We ask God to have mercy and forgive us for our wrong doings. Jesus says in the Lord’s Prayer we should ask God to forgive our sins, just as we forgive the sins of those who sin against us (Matthew 6:11-15). We could personalize Psalm 51:1-10 or 38:17-18 or 1John 1:8-10 and make it our own prayer of confession. In Psalm 51, David asks God's mercy for his sins and is confident that God who loves him unconditionally will forgive him. When we confess our sins, we sense the goodness and mercy (Psalm 23:6) of God who forgives us and renews our hearts and minds.

The “T” stands for Thanksgiving. We thank God for all he has done for us (Psalm 95:1-2). We remember his goodness and love (Psalm 23:6) how God faithfully leads and blesses us in our lives. We thank God for his grace and mercy shown toward us. We remember times he protects (2 Samuel 22:48-50 or Psalm 50:14-15) us in our lives.

The “S” stands for Supplication. We come to God with our prayer requests for the needs of our leaders, our teachers, our loved ones and our own lives. We bring the prayers of small group members (Romans 15:30). Adversities that we face at home or at work we bring to God (2 Chronicles 20:9). This is the final part of the prayer where we bring our lives in order with the will of God. In the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread...Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. Yours is the Kingdom, power and glory, forever and ever, Amen.”

Sometimes our prayers go unanswered. It could possibly be because we were praying to God for bread but in God's eyes that particular prayer request may be something that could be detrimental to us or something we cannot handle (Matthew 7:11). Do you think God would grant that request? In time we will thank God for those unanswered prayers. Coming to God in prayer makes us look at ourselves through God’s loving eyes. In so doing we are able to tune into what God really wants to accomplish in our lives.

Prayer is our spiritual conversations with our Heavenly Father day and night. It is good to have structured times and quiet places for prayer. To vary the way we express our desires or concerns of the heart we can personalize different passages of scripture and songs to help us as we pray. Before we begin our time of prayer to help us focus, reading passages from the Bible for reflection on what God is telling us today will support us. Gods word is spirit and truth, it is sharper than any two edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) that penetrates deep into our thoughts and attitudes. Lets us not forget that God loves to listen to us day and night, like a father delights in his conversations with his child.

Reflection :- Daily Prayers refreshes and empowers our hearts and minds.