First Baptist Church of Niles
Bible Study
A Study of Prayer
Types of Prayers
A.C.T.S.
Adoration
He deserves our adoration. We should some prayer time devoted to just giving Him praise.
We were created to give Him praise
he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Eph 1:5-6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Ps 150:6
Jesus showed in the Lord's prayer that the first prayer should be to give praise.
Our focus should be not on ourselves but on Him alone.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18
Confession
Is getting honest about sin.
Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit. Ps 32:1-2
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.1 John 1:5-7
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge. Ps 62:8
We need to restore our fellowship.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving focuses on what God has done or is doing.
I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving. Ps 69:30
His word commands it
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess 5:18
His works demand it
When our ancestors were in Egypt,
they gave no thought to your miracles;
they did not remember your many kindnesses,
and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.[ Ps 106:7
His Spirit inspires it
For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Cor 2:11-12
Ungrateful hearts are sour in all circumstances. This is a sin in itself.
Supplication
The function of asking of something. It must come after the other types of prayer. We must be right with God
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Eph 6:18
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matt 7:7-8
Jesus intercedes for us.
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Rom 8:34
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. Rom 8:27