As part of my effort to improve my prayer life, lately I have been trying to follow the method of prayer endorsed by Priscilla Shirer in “Fervent”.
She uses the acronym “PRAY” as a tool to help people like me have some structure in their prayers. The P is for praise. R stands for repentance. A is asking, and Y is yes- where you pray His promises over your life.
When I first started using this technique, I would skip over the repentance part. What did I need to do that for? I didn’t commit any major sins – no killing, stealing or cheating going on here. But I started praying for the dumb things I do – being jealous over insignificant things, my bad attitude, snapping at my family.
Why is this important?
In our study on contentment this week, we studied the sin of Achan. In Joshua 7:19, Joshua tells Achan to give God praise and then confess his sin. Achan skips the praise part and tells what he has done. He also never repents for his sin. One of the attendees brought up the point that Joshua told him to praise God first before he confessed and had he done that, maybe his life or his family’s lives would not have ended the way it did.
Starting with praise gives God the space to enter in and to work. Repentance is a change in our mindset- something that I am striving to achieve. Ask Him for what you need and speak his promises over your life and your famly’s! ~ Shiney
