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“Come away with me. Just you and me, to a secluded place where we can be alone and spend time together. I want to know you and be known by you”, her lover pleaded with her. This man loved her as no other person on earth. He accepted all of her flaws or the flaws that she perceived she had. He only saw her as beautiful, treasured and loved.

She longed to spend time with him, just the two of them. They would talk and laugh and dance. It would be amazing to have him all to herself with no interruptions. He was the best listener, the perfect man.

She could give him everything that had been weighing her down and he would make the world go away for a while. He quieted her weary heart and mind and settled her soul in a sea of peace. This blissful longing to be with her one true love remained just that, a longing.

She couldn’t put her finger on why she couldn’t find time for him.

She just couldn’t. Life was busy, too busy. Appointments to go to, deadlines to meet at work, children to be looked after and school events to attend, a husband who needed her, and aging parents that required more and more of her time.

She was tired. She just wanted sleep…uninterrupted sleep with no one needing her. She wanted peace with no worries and no one waking her up. There was no time for this beautiful love of hers who asked her to come spend time alone with him.

Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.”
Mark 6:31 (NLT)

Her love said to her, “Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one!” Song of Solomon 2:10 (NLT)

Sound like a romance novel?

That’s what prayer is, your own romance novel with the lover of your soul. It is time alone with our one true love, the perfect man, Jesus, who quiets our soul and gives our heart rest and peace. But life gets in the way and we put him off. We give him pop up prayers and quick little conversations in the car as we drive to the next item on our agenda.

And life gets more and more stressful.

The pain between our shoulder blade grows tighter as the worries continue to pile up. We can handle it though. We just keep going, pushing, handling, stressing, shoving it all down, instead of stopping for a few minutes and giving it to Jesus and resting in the promises of His word.

Prayer is work, after all (see Colossians 4:12). Prayer, in the truest sense of the word is a struggle for us. It requires faith in the One that we cannot see. It requires stopping our minds from the one million tasks and worries that weigh us down every day. We have to stop and focus. Focus is a precious commodity when we are bombarded constantly by distractions.

Here are 4 key points to the model prayer – A.C.T.S.

I did not write the model prayer or the 4 key points. I wish I knew the author of the acronym. But I don’t, so I will give all of the credit to the truth author of the model prayer, Jesus.

Let me preface by saying, in order to be heard by God, you must have a relationship with His Son, Jesus, through faith in Him. Have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? Then you will be saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

If not, accept that gift from God today.

Jesus gave us a formula for prayer when He gave us what we call the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-13.

4 key points to the model prayer – A.C.T.S.

A.C.T.S. is an acronym for this model prayer.

A.C.T.S stands for:
A – Adoration
C – Confession
T – Thanksgiving
S – Supplication

ADORATION –

First, before we even begin asking God for anything, we should acknowledge who God is and all that He does in our lives. We should spend time just sitting at His feet in Adoration and bless Him for being our God, our King, our Creator, our Refuge and our Strength….you get the picture. This shouldn’t be something we rush through but a sincere time of praise and worship of our King. (Psalm 138:1-3)

CONFESSION –

Second, Jesus said to say, “forgive our debts”. We need to spend time Confessing our sins. Don’t act like you don’t have any sins. God knows your heart and your thoughts.

Do some soul searching. Ask the Holy Spirit to call to mind what you might have done to cause your Heavenly Father pain. God can’t have you in His presence until you have been “cleansed of all unrighteousness”, 1 John 1:9. So, get rid of that mess.

THANKSGIVING –

Spend some time in Thanksgiving. Even in the worst of times there are blessings to be thankful for, so think on whatever is good in life. Praise Him. Even if you have to just start thanking Him for the basics of clean water and electricity. In all things give thanks. (Phil 4:6)

SUPPLICATION –

Then you can start giving Him your prayer requests, Supplication.  Pour them out, write them down. Jesus said, “You have not, because you do not ask.” So ask! There is no perfect way to pray. However you pray it is perfect to Him. He loves you and longs to spend time with you. Just talk to Him. (Matt 7:7)

There you have it, just like Jesus said, the secret to the perfect prayer, time alone with your Father.

Go in to a room, close the door, get out your journal and talk to your daddy. There is no judgment, only love and acceptance. The Holy Spirit will intercede and make your prayers perfect for His ears. (Romans 8:26)

I have created a Prayer Journal download to help you if a blank page freaks you out.  Some people are stumped by a blank page.  Here is a template to help you get started as you start journaling your prayers. Hopefully, you will find it helpful. After a while you won’t need it but it might help in the beginning of your journaling adventure. I’ll talk more about journaling in the next post.

Write your own romance novel today!

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