A few weeks ago I introduced the term acrostic to you. An acrostic is different than an acronym and instead uses the first letters of words to create a sentence or a poem instead of an abbreviation. Tina recently gave us a number of acrostics in the church bulletin. I thought they were all quite clever so kept them to be used in some of my future messages. Today I will introduce the second acrostic from Tina’s list for your consideration:
PRAY – Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield.
Let us now deal with each of these critically important parts of prayer.
Praise
Psalm 100:4-5 – give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
God deserves our praise because He provides us life both now and for eternity. He also meets all our earthly needs and blesses us all in so many ways throughout our lives. He has forgiven us for our sin and is victorious over death, promising resurrection from the dead for those who choose to follow Him by faith.
Psalm 66:1-2 – Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; 2 sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious.
When we sing about God’s glory during a worship service we are honoring God publicly and in unison with other believers, we remind ourselves and others of God’s goodness. Oftentimes we experience the joy of the Lord and receive His peace from the Holy Spirit as we praise God in song. Covenant certainly praises God on a regular basis through our song!
Praising God is important because it shows our submission to Him as well as our thankfulness for all He has done for us. When we take the time to praise Him, we are acknowledging that He is worthy of our attention and adoration. As an added benefit, when we praise God we experience His joy!
Repent
Repentance is defined as reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
Acts 2:38 – Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance here refers to a change of mind and purpose that turns an individual from sin to God. Such change involves more than fearing the consequences of God’s judgment. Genuine repentance knows that the evil of sin must be forsaken and the person and work of Christ totally and singularly embraced. Peter encouraged his audience to repent, otherwise they would not experience true conversion.
Acts 3:19-20 – Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.
Note that “return” here is a common New Testament term that relates to sinners turning to God.
Ask
James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
As Pastor Don told us in last Sunday’s sermon, God doesn’t make the decision for us when we die whether we go to heaven or hell. Instead, He gives us the gift of free will to choose our own individual path on earth and our ultimate home when our time on earth is ended.
Isaiah 30:21 – Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
If we ask God, He will always speak to us. Sometimes, we choose not to listen or we may not like what He is saying at the moment. But He is speaking to us if we are open to hearing from Him.
Yield
Romans 6:13 – and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God.
This scripture refers to a decision of the human will. Before sin can have power over a believer, it must first pass through the human will. Paul reduced the whole of sanctification to the simple and clear goal of simply pursuing Christlikeness. The believer must refuse to rely on past virtuous deeds and achievements in ministry or to dwell on sins and failures. To be distracted by the past debilitates one’s efforts in the present. The answer here is to yield, or present, yourself to God completely!
A clear element of the Christian life is to pray often, both telling God our concerns and asking for his guidance. A successful prayer life includes praising Him always, repenting for our sinfulness, asking for His guidance, and yielding always to His wishes for us.