Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Let’s get creative with ACTS prayer

Lynne Baab • Thursday July 30 2015

Let’s get creative with ACTS prayer

I’ve been writing about ACTS prayer. Pray this way, my mentors said when I was a young adult. Begin with (1) adoration, because you’re entering into the presence of a holy God. Then (2) confession will come naturally because God’s holiness will make you aware of your own sin. After you confess your sin, you’ll be aware of God’s great mercy in redeeming us in Jesus Christ, so you’ll want to spend some time (3) thanking God. Only after all of that should you engage in (4) supplication, asking God to meet your own needs and the needs of those you...

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Let's rediscover (or discover) lament

Lynne Baab • Thursday July 23 2015

Let's rediscover (or discover) lament

I’ve been writing about ACTS prayer (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication). Last week I compared ACTS prayer to the Psalms, and noted that lament prayers are common in the psalms, but ACTS leaves no room for lament. In fact, lament is pretty rare in most kinds of prayer today.

A few weeks ago I was on our church’s roster to do the “prayer for others” in Sunday worship, and I decided to try a lament. I chose a psalm of lament, Psalm 10. That week I had read a powerful article about the record number of displaced people in our time. It seemed...

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ACTS prayer analyzed in the light of the Psalms

Lynne Baab • Thursday July 16 2015

ACTS prayer analyzed in the light of the Psalms

Last week I wrote about ACTS prayer, the idea that prayer alone or with others works well if the components are these, in this order: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication (requests for ourselves or others). I’ve been thinking about the ways ACTS prayer compares with the psalms. The psalms are often called “the prayer book of the Bible,” so they are a very helpful guide to prayer. All four of those components appear over and over in the psalms, no doubt about it.

Here are some of my other observations:

1. Many psalms are weighted heavily toward only one of the ACTS components. My...

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Thinking analytically about ACTS prayer

Lynne Baab • Friday July 10 2015

Thinking analytically about ACTS prayer

I became a committed Christian at 19, and soon after that I started hearing about ACTS prayer. This pattern for prayer was recommended by many of my mentors as a good idea for both individual prayer and group prayer. The acronym stands for:      Adoration      Confession      Thanksgiving      Supplication (prayers where we ask for something)

The idea was that we always should start our prayers with praise and adoration, because we are entering into the presence of a holy and mighty God. Entering into the presence of a holy God will make us aware of our own sin, so confession should come next. When...

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