Thanksgiving from the ACTS Prayer Acronym is the next part of the prayer series. Thanksgiving is the expression of gratitude, especially to God. It is an essential part of the ACTS model because it’s a great way to embody the Christian life. Expressing thanksgiving in prayer, worship, and praise focuses these expressions on Christ rather than self.
Praying
Prayer is complex, mostly because it’s hard to understand why Jesus tells us to pray when God is omniscient. But He does, and often prayer involves emotions of desperation, love, hurt, anger, gratefulness, and excitement.
That’s why this easy acronym focusing on thanksgiving from the ACTS prayer acronym is such a helpful structure to come into God’s presence and help you pray through the emotions that are pouring from your heart.
Although it is complex, prayer doesn’t have to be hard. The easiest way to make sure your prayer life expresses your thankfulness to God, along with the other elements of prayer, is to follow the example set forth by Jesus Christ Himself in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
Thanksgiving From the ACTS Prayer Acronym
As we covered in Adoration From The ACTS Prayer Acronym: A Powerful Step 1, the A in ACTS tells us about adoration and how we should address the Godhead appropriately by adoring who He is. The C in ACTS reminds us about confession of our sins, as we discussed in Step 2, Confession- How To Pray, The ACTS Prayer Model, because if we’re breathing, we have sin.
The next component in the ACTS prayer method is T, Thanksgiving is where we offer our gratitude to God in our prayer time. Don’t fall into the idea that personal prayer is just a focus on oneself; it’s also about the needs of others and being an intercessor. Next time, we’ll cover that in the final component about supplication.
True Thankfulness
Thankfulness comes from the heart; it isn’t just a surface-level emotion, it’s multifaceted. It’s not just a feeling; it goes much deeper, intertwining feelings with knowledgeable thoughts rooted and grounded in what you believe about Christ. When you love Him, in living for Him, you discover that thankfulness comes flowing from your lips without force.
Luke 6:45 explains this principle simply: “A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” If your thankfulness is merely lip service, your mouth will betray you and reveal the true intentions of your heart.
Thankfulness From the Heart
So, how do we ensure our thankfulness stems from the heart? We immerse ourselves in Christ, worshipping Him in everything. This should happen as we go about our daily lives. Paul says in Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” We need God’s guidance, but He wants our reverence first.
Being in the Word and praying without ceasing helps us focus on Christ Jesus because we often get sidetracked. The more you pray and humbly ask God for what you need, the more thankful you become for His omniscience. Trust me, I know this advice is easier to type than to practice in your own life. This earthly life is full of curveballs, whether they are due to our own disobedience or the devil’s interference, and they distract us from our intended purpose.
Simply Thankful To God
The Lord our God is good. For that very reason alone, we should be thankful. The Heavenly Father continually forgives us; I know He forgives me daily. God’s goodness never ceases, and He gives us many reasons to be thankful. Thankful that we have His promises to stand upon, thankful He never changes, thankful that He loves us, but most importantly, thankful that He gave His Son’s life to save us.
We are a self-sufficient, self-reliant world with a sin problem needing a heart transplant full of thanksgiving. If we’re not thankful for all that Christ has done for us, how can we ever hope to be with Him eternally?
Now that we have determined what thankfulness is, why we should be thankful, and how to be thankful, we can rejoice in where thankfulness takes us-to the feet of Jesus!
Protection Of Thankfulness
Thankfulness is a God encouraged, built-in barrier against complaining. In Philippians 2:14-15 CSB, the Apostle Paul says, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation…” Jesus doesn’t want us focusing on the negative, constantly being forlorn and brokenhearted. He came to give us life and give it more abundantly, according to John 10:10.
We must focus on God’s will for us. No, we don’t know His plan down to the finest detail, but we must trust that it will be revealed in His time. Until then, actively rest! God’s plan for this world is active and gives the Christian solace. The will of God is perfect and gives the Christian rest. When we actively rest in Him, doing as Jesus commanded to spread the gospel and keep His commandments, we are fulfilling our part, living for Him, and sharing Him with others.
Prayer Of Thankfulness
The A.C.T.S. acronym isn’t the only way to help you pray; there are many different ways to pray and different prayer models you can use to guide you through active prayer. Keep in mind, prayer doesn’t have to be scripted and should be about the acknowledgement of God, repenting of our sins with an attitude of thanksgiving, while petitioning for others and ourselves at the throne of grace.
Regardless of the method of prayer you may or may not use, prayer is to help you have a relationship with the Father. It is a powerful way to gain a fresh perspective on your struggles and offer praise to God for all that you’re thankful for. God gives us good gifts, among which is the best way to come into the presence of God and come away with a clean heart. Prayer is that way.
How do you pray? Please comment and let us know if we can help you pray or pray for you.
