Issue link: https://discover.cph.org/i/1289990
12 Lutheran Life HOW DO I TALK TO GOD? Perhaps one of the hardest parts of prayer is knowing where to begin. While praying the Lord's Prayer or speaking freely from the heart are two ways we can pray, sometimes, having an outline to help guide our time in prayer can be helpful. Martin Luther had a barber named Peter who once asked him for advice on how he should pray. Luther responded with a letter entitled, "A Simple Way to Pray" (Matthew Harrison, trans. [St. Louis: Concordia, 2012]). In this letter, he taught Peter to pray each part of the catechism using four points. In our day, Luther's "garland of four strands," as he calls it, has been tweaked just a bit and presented as the A.C.T.S. model. "A.C.T.S." stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Here is a closer look at what each word means: ADORATION is that time in prayer where we honor God's Word by focusing on what God is teaching us or promising to us at this point in the catechism. Our focus is neither on ourselves nor on what we can get from God. Rather, in adoration of God and His Word, we are being formed by what He has to say. CONFESSION is that time when, upon hearing what God has to say, we acknowledge our sinfulness to God. If we have been focusing on a commandment, we confess the ways in which we have broken that commandment. If we have been focusing on a prom- ise, we confess our lack of faith in that promise. This is a time of self-examination and repentance. THANKSGIVING is when the sorrow of repentance is turned into rejoicing. Praying in faith means that we trust God to hear our cries and, because of Jesus' blood, to apply the promise of forgiveness to us. We thank Him for not holding our sins against us. We further thank Him for giving us this Word so we can know Him better. If we are focusing on a command, we thank God for His wisdom and for the places where we see this command being fulfilled. If focusing on a promise, we thank God for His gifts, graciousness, and kindness toward sinners like us. SUPPLICATION is when we close our prayers by ask- ing God to help us do what He has commanded and believe what He has promised. Again, if focusing on a command, we pray that God will give us the abilities and resources necessary to obey His will. If we have been focusing on a promise, we pray that God will give us the faith to believe what He has decreed (for us!). A.C.T.S.