Day of Prayer — (1) SPEAKING TO GOD

We want to spend the first part of our full day of prayer by speaking to God, telling Him what we think of Him, how we value Him, how we feel about ourselves, and our situation, and also by expressing to Him our dependence on Him for everything particularly in specific challenges and concerns that we have for ourselves and for those dear to us.

Below is a pattern of prayer which has become commonly known by its acronym: A-C-T-S. It is actually the same pattern that is usually prescribed for our day to day quiet time. The only difference now is that we are giving ourselves more time to be specific, and thorough. We don’t want to rush through this and just lump everything under general categories. Instead, we should make the effort to write down our prayers, and to be as thorough and exhaustive as possible.

As mentioned in the lead article, we don’t intend to be mechanical about this process. Rather, we want to help you express yourself in a simple but meaningful way, and to provide balance in your message to guard against missing out on key areas of your life that God wants to bring to your attention.

Here are some additional details about this process of speaking to God.

ADORATION — The first part of speaking to God is to honor Him for who He is. If you are part of a group going through the day of prayer, you can have a common time of worship together. If you are Catholic, you may want to start off the day with a Holy Mass. Singing songs of praise and worship, as well as reading the Psalms will be most appropriate, accompanied by spontaneous praise and worship in the manner and style that you are accustomed to.

CONTRITION — or “confession”, is an integral part of this extended time of prayer, and it follows after your time of worship. I recommend that you spend a considerable amount of time evaluating the quality of your relationship with God and with your fellow men from the point of view of what you know to be God’s commands. Don’t just generalize everything and simply admit you are a sinner, and then be done with it. Be as specific as possible, evaluate your behavior during the past months (or the past year even), and how you have thought, acted, or failed to act. Do write this in your journal. Your effort of examination and writing these down is your way of confessing to the Lord.

Then ask for God’s forgiveness, and express your sincere repentance not simply because you are afraid of God’s just punishment and you are sorry for having to endure the present consequences of your sins, but because you have offended God who is all good and deserving of all your love. Then, in prayer, resolve to put to death the old self, and ask God’s mercy so you can begin to live a new life.

THANKSGIVING — After worshiping God, and repenting of your specific sins, this is the time to express to God your gratitude for all He has been and all that He has done in your life. Again, don’t generalize, but be specific and personal. I again recommend writing down the list of circumstances, persons, possessions, relationships, learnings, opportunities etc that you have benefited from during the past year. Aim not to leave anything out.

SUPPLICATION — The last part of your time to speak to God is when you bring to the Lord your specific concerns for which you seek His divine intervention and action. Here, it would be good to bring to the Lord not just your own personal concerns, but the specific concerns of significant others.

A simple method to remember whom you should pray for is to imagine both hands in a prayer position, and have each pair of fingers represent a group of people to pray for. Then pray for the concerns of the following people in this sequence:

1. The thumb — which in a prayer position would be closest to your chest, represents those people who are nearest and dearest to your heart.
2. The forefinger — this represents those people who help you and your loved ones, who make life easy for you, including your peers and friends.
3. The middle finger — the tallest finger represents those people who are above you: your parents, your leaders, your elders, your ministers.
4. The ring finger — which is the weakest finger in the hand. It represents those people whom you know who are weak, who are sick, who are suffering.
5. The smallest finger — the farthest from your chest. This represents you. Pray for yourself and your concerns last of all the above.

In a post that I wrote in 2019 which I entitled “YOUR OWN ‘BAHALA KA NA, LORD’ PRAYER“, I recommended a specific way to “formulate” your prayer petitions. In the article, I suggested that you first acknowledge who God is (which you would have done during your time of adoration), and then you recall to mind the things that He has promised specially in connection with your prayer concern. Following that you can now mention to God your specific problem concern (a statement of a problem, rather than your “preferred solution”).

At the end of your prayers of supplication, acknowledge your helplessness and complete trust and dependence on God who is sovereign, who is infinitely wise, and unconditionally loving. Bahala ka na, Lord.

in summary, and as a reminder, be sure to write down your prayers of repentance, of thanksgiving, and of supplication. Be specific, and be as thorough as possible. We will refer to these lists in the second part of your day of prayer.