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The acrostic ACTS stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. What would happen if each were removed from devotions? (For example, what would happen if adoration were removed from your prayers?)
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We could not fully pray in a way to encompass all that Jesus taught us to pray.
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If we remove them, it’s going to be like a ship that has no fuel to propel it forward.
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I believe ACTS keeps us focused on God and His will for our lives. He is worthy of our praise and adoration. All of these things go together as part of our worship, prayer and praise. They do not stand alone. Leaving one out makes prayer all about me and what I want, and not God’s will for my life.
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If Adoration was taken out of the equation
1) We would not appreciate the character of God and we can not truly do the following things:
2) Accept Him as our Heavenly Father
2) Pray to Him effectively
4) Depend on Him to get us through the dark times in our lives
5) Believe on Christ as our Savior because without appreciating God’s character we could not understand how He loved us enough to give us His only begotten Son.
If Confession were taken out
1) We would be in sin
2) Our relationship with God would be damaged because of unrepented sin.
3) With unconfessed sins in our hearts we would not be in God’s presence.
Without Thanksgiving in the equation
1) We would be living in sin(Romans 1:21)
2) We would not be showing our appreciation of God’s grace.
43 We would not be showing our appreciation of God’s forgiveness.
Without Supplication
1) We would not be asking God for the things we need
2) Without asking God for the things we need we would be relying on ourselves instead of on Him.
3) We would miss out on blessings God wants to give us because we did not ask. -
Without adoration, we would betray a lack of awareness of God’s worth that surpasses all others. Without confession of sin, the undertow of either guilt or hardness of heart and conscience would become a barrier to real communication and prayer. Without thanksgiving, our inner self would become presumptuous and reckless in taking lightly the greatness of God’s power and generosity. Without supplication, we would be subject to even more presumptuous in the form of expectations, thinking God will take care of us and others with no expressible reason for why we should ask Him for anything.
