This is the perfect week to start encouraging our loved ones to focus on praying with a thankful heart. We can encourage our family on how to pray with a thankful heart and suggest some helpful ways to approach prayer and give thanks for our blessings. We know there is no magic formula for prayer, however, through the years I have learned some helpful ways to structure my prayers.

I have participated in Bible Study Fellowship for several years and each week in our leaders meetings we start with group prayer. It has taught me how to pray in a similar pattern as the ACTS format. We begin by praising God, then thanking Him specifically for all that He has done for us that week. We do not do the confession part during our leaders meeting, but we do pray for different aspects of our BSF service and the fellow leaders in our group. My favorite part is when we pray God’s attributes to Him. He is so worthy of this praise and it has been such a blessing to teach me to give God my praises rather than my shopping list of prayer requests. It is also such a blessing to hear a room full of women praying to God and lifting up His attributes and praising Him for all He has done.

Many of you probably know the ACTS method for praying. That means you first start with Adoration for God and praying to Him all of His attributes and characteristics. It means we take the time to give God all of the glory He deserves. For example, “You are a God of mercy and grace” “You are sovereign” “You are the one and only God” “You are mighty” “You are Holy.”

The C part of the equation is Confession. We confess our sins to the Lord and ask forgiveness for the sins we have committed. It helps us to keep a watchful eye on the habits and sins that we commit each day. This part might be difficult for us because it takes some self-examination and admitting what sins we may not want to face or admit to ourselves. It helps me to keep these behaviors or attitudes in check if I am regularly pointing them out to God and asking forgiveness for them.

Thanksgiving is the next step and this is where we can thank the Lord for all He has done for us. As I have gotten older, I have tried to make a habit of thanking God for prayers He has answered and even prayers that He answered a week or more ago. I have found it keeps me mindful of the ways He has answered prayers. I try to remember to be thankful for the answers to small or “silly” things as well. With so much sadness and so many world events that would seem to take precedent over some of my “silly” prayers like a child passing a college course, I am comforted to know that the Lord even wants to hear those requests from us and I am equally thankful for those answers as well.

The last step is Supplication. This step could take hours if I had the time to devote each day to this as I should. This step is where we lift up our prayers on behalf of those who we are praying for and their needs rather than our own.