The Acts Prayer Model - How to confidently pray powerful prayers to God (PDF)

Do you feel confident when you pray to God? Or are you unsure what to say when you pray?

The A.C.T.S prayer model is perfect for you!

What is the ACTS prayer model?

The A.C.T.S model is a simple acronym made up of four parts that when prayed cover all the aspects of prayer that should be included in your daily prayer routine.

The A.C.T.S prayer model is very similar to the pattern of prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray in Luke 11:1-4. You may also know it as ' The Lord's Prayer '.

A.C.T.S acronym

A represents the word adoration, C represents confession, T represents thanksgiving, and S represents the word supplication.

I have been praying to God for probably 40+ years. I have always talked to Him. It is just like breathing. I do it continuously and often unconsciously. I'm not bragging, it is just a fact.

BUT........

God has convicted me that, yes I am good at chatting to Him (and I am very chatty!) but I am not always really seeking His face appropriately. I love to be in God's presence and I have written extensively about how to practice the presence of God, but I do lack in certain areas of practicing prayer.

God is jealous for us to be seeking Him. One of the names of God that displays this characteristic is His name, El Kanna. God desires for us to become all that He has created us to be and for that to happen we need to be constantly in communion with Him and actively listening for God's still strong voice directing us through the curvaceous and unpredictable roads of our lives.

To be in the perfect posture to pray and hear from God is to truly and affectionately adore Him, to create a clean heart before Him, to give thanks to God for everything, and finally to lay all our burdens at His feet and to present all our prayers of petition and supplication before Him. (We will discuss all the definitions of these words further down in this post).

And the awesome news is that Jesus has taught us exactly how to pray!

A.C.T.S Prayer Model PDF

There is an A.C.T.S. Prayer Model PDF for you to download in the Scriptural Grace digital/printable shop. This will help you to implement all that you learn in this post about prayer and you are welcome to print out A.C.T.S. prayer model printable as a handout to use in church or in a group setting.

Jesus taught us how to pray

We read in Luke 11:1-4 of a wonderful conversation that Jesus had with His disciples. The disciples of Jesus went everywhere with Him. They closely observed His every move. They saw firsthand how Jesus interacted with people and how He spent time in communion with God.

So you have to wonder why the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Did they observe the strength that He received from His Father in heaven, after spending time alone in His presence?

Did Jesus exude peace and joy despite His circumstances that the disciples longed for too?

What was it about Jesus' prayers that led the disciples to ask 'Lord teach us to pray '?

As we learn about how to pray like Jesus, keep in mind that the disciples were already used to praying. Traditional Jewish prayers were said at sunrise, 3 PM, and at nightfall. They would also pray before and after each meal, at Sabbath and Passover.

These Jewish men (Jesus's disciples) were well acquainted with prayer, yet they knew that they were missing something powerful. So they simply asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Jesus had something special to teach them and us about prayer.

What was that special, unique ingredient in Jesus' prayer life that the disciples had never seen before but yearned to learn about?

Could the secret ingredient to the prayers of Jesus be that when He prayed in the Holy Spirit, Jesus knew how important it was to adore His Father and confess His inadequacies, and thank Him before presenting His requests before God?

Teach us to pray scripture

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”