How is your prayer life? Mine stinks. That’s my testimony about prayer for as long as I can remember. Recently, God has been convicting me to stop moaning and complaining about my minimal prayer and to start doing something about it. I used the acronym ACTS for years when I did pray: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. It’s a great structure for praying, but I believe there are other elements that need to be included, such as silence before God to hear His voice, time to seek God, affirming the truths that we are who He says we are and putting on the armor of God.

I have identified 12 elements that should be in our prayers. I’m forming a new acronym, the ABC’S of prayer, and for two reasons. One, if your prayer life is struggling like mine is, join me in preschool to learn the basics of prayer. Two, consistent with the use of an acronym, one element begins with A, two with B, three with C, and six with S. I’m putting the teaching and resources together into one notebook that I’m calling the Prayer War Manual. It’s time to get serious about prayer. I hope you will join me and that these resources will help you become better at prayer.

To learn more about the ABCS method of prayer, read over the introduction document linked below that gives an overview.

Introduction Document

View the resources below for each of the ABCS of Prayer: Ascribe, Believe, Bless, Confess, Clothe, Combat, Sob, Seek, Still, Surrender, Spirit-led and Serve.

Other Prayer Resources:

Prayers of Jesus Resource Sheet

So many times I find myself rushing into prayer to ask God for what I want. How disrespectful. If I had an audience with the president, I surely would think it inappropriate to start right in with requesting stuff. Instead, as Jesus taught us to pray, we should begin with ascribing praise to God, “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Ascribe is a biblical word that means “to acknowledge or attribute to.” Psalm 68:34 says, “Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.” We should begin our time in prayer praising God for who He is. We are not giving God anything. We are simply acknowledging all the perfection that is already His.

Satan is a liar. From the beginning of time, he came to Adam and Eve to tempt them into believing wrong things about God and about themselves. His name means “slanderer and accuser.” He will tell us things that are not true of us and will tempt us to believe his lies. We need time before God in prayer when we affirm our position in Christ and when we see ourselves as God sees us. We are who He says we are. During this time, we recognize that God has redeemed us, set us free, made us His children, seated us in heavenly places and gifted us with so many other rich spiritual blessings that we have in Christ.

After our consideration of how great God is and how He has by His grace given us such favored standing with Him, it is appropriate to thank Him. I’m using the word “bless” because even during this portion of prayer, we have to be careful not to make our communication with God about our blessings. The provision we have from God says more about His majesty than it does our worth. The crowds shouted, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” What excites me most about my blessings is not what I have from God, but how my provisions exalt the name of Jesus. So, while I take time to count my many blessings and name them one by one, I turn the praise to the exaltation of His name, the name above every name, from whom comes any and every good and perfect gift.

When we focus our gaze on the holiness of God in consideration of His character and His grace to give us standing before Him and every physical and spiritual blessing we need, such worship will naturally drive us to our knees. We will see God and then catch a glimpse of ourselves. In humility, ascribing, believing and blessing lead us straight to confessing. We have not done as we ought. We have done much that we should not. Therefore, we repent in spiritual sackcloth and ashes. “Father, forgive us, for we have sinned against you.”

As we ascribe the attributes to God that are a part of His nature, we recognize that many of them are character traits that should be true of us as well, particularly if we hope to live in the image of God as we were created. Romans 13:14 (NIV84) says, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” During this portion of prayer, we ask God to develop His character in us. We ask Him to put on us the clothing of mercy, grace, compassion, kindness, love and all the virtues that are inherent to His nature.

We are at war. How easy it is to forget that. We get lulled to complacency as we enjoy the luxuries of life. But Satan is still prowling about like a roaring lion seeking to kill, steal and destroy. God is at war to win souls for His glory. We must join in that battle every day. Fortunately, we are not left without armor and weapons. Ephesians 6 describes the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the shoes of evangelism and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Every day in prayer we consciously put on this armor and pick up our weapons to engage in the battle of the Lord God Almighty, who most certainly will win the fight.

Life is hard. Dr Kellemen says that this world is fallen, and many times, it falls on us. We all know the pains of a broken heart. Yet, life moves on, and people urge us to get over our hurts quickly. So, far too many times, we don’t fully grieve our losses. Additionally, our God has a heart that grieves. We sing, “Break our hearts, Lord, for what breaks yours,” but too seldom do we take time to ask God what breaks His heart or spend time weeping with Him over the things that break His heart. Numerous psalms in the Bible were written as laments. There is an entire book called Lamentations. In prayer, during this element, we cry for ourselves and for our God.

As in all relationships, communication is a time where we seek to know the person better. It’s not about the dialog; it’s about the relationship. We come to God to know Him and to be intimate with Him. The Westminster Catechism says, “the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.” So true. Therefore, we open His Word in prayer at this point and ask God to reveal Himself to us. “Lord, let me see You. Who are you? I need to know so that I can praise You better. I also need to see what You want from me. I’m coming to You to worship You and to know what I must do in Your name.”

Psalm 46:10 (NIV84) says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” We live in a day of great busyness. People are always running here and there. If we are not careful, even prayer can become yet another drive-thru experience where we rush in and rush out to get the assignment done. Prayer is not an intercom where we push the button to make demands; it is walky-talky where we inquire of the General and release the talking button to listen for His instructions. This element quiets us. It stills our souls. It shuts our mouths. We listen. We wait. We pray as Samuel did, “Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.”

After nine elements of prayer, we are surely ready to ask for what we need and want. But, this portion of prayer is far more about us being changed than it is getting God to change His ways or our circumstances. Jesus taught us a crucial mindset for prayer when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane facing the cross that was before Him, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” Of course, we should ask God for what we need. He tells us to come boldly to the throne of grace for help in time of need. We are chastised in Scriptures that we have not because we ask not. So, during this time, we will make numerous requests. But our posture most remain humble. “Father, I don’t know what I need. Provide what I am asking, if You will it so, but not my will, but Your will be done. I surrender my will to Yours. Answer as You will.”

Nearing the end of our time in prayer, we know that we are about to leave our meeting with God to go out into the world to live out His commands for His glory. But, where shall we go? What shall we do? Hopefully, if we prayed correctly, God has spoken and we have heard Him. There are things He impressed upon us. Witness to this person. Get right with that person. Give money there. Show compassion here. But, even with these directives, we need our every step ordered. We want to walk in His presence every moment. We want our every action and reaction to be controlled by His Spirit. So, we ask for God’s filling, to be intoxicated by the Spirit, to be controlled by the Lord Jesus so that we would not simply ask “what would Jesus do?” but we would actually do exactly what our Savior would do as He leads us all the way.

This rich time in prayer with God should have ingrained in our minds and hearts the mission of Jesus who came not “to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). It’s not about me. This day is not for me. God wants me to go out in His name and to give myself away to others for His name. The wonderful thing is that my prayer to this point has filled me to overflowing with Jesus. I don’t need anything from others. He has met my every need in Christ. Now, I can leave and go forth so full of Him that I literally ooze Jesus out on others. He has supplied what I need so I can go out to meet others’ needs with the blessing He has already given me.