ADD PDL TO YOUR PRAYER LIFE

ADORATION, CONFESSION, THANKSGIVING, SUPPLICATION

I was taught in my seminary class on liturgy to think of the acronym ACTS when you were considering the types of prayers to include in your worship service. You begin the service with prayers of Adoration, then you continue with a prayer of Confession of sins. Later in the service, you include prayers of Thanksgiving and Supplication. That was an easy way to make sure that the service offered the complete range of prayers for the worshipping community.

FIRST PRAYERS IN THE BIBLE

Have you ever thought about what the Bible reports as the first prayer heard by God? It was when God said to Cain, “I heard the voice of your brother’s blood crying out to me from the grounds. I read that to suggest that the first authentic prayer recorded in the Bible was a prayer of protest.

As I thought further about this, I realize that two other significant forms of prayer to which God responded were prayers of doubt and prayers of laughter. If you read in Genesis 15-18, you will find these prayers offered by the first family. First, when God told Abram that Sarai was going to have a child in chapter 15, Abram’s response was to declare his doubts to God. Like many humans, Abram felt a need to instruct God about gynecology.

PRAYER OF LAUGHTER

Later, in chapter 17 Abram laughed at the suggestion that his ninty-year-old wife would bear a son. And in chapter 18, Sarai also offered a response to God by laughing. Before you dismiss these incidents as merely incidental, read how God responded to their prayers by insisting that their child be named Isaac which carries the meaning that God laughs.

Later in the story of the near sacrifice of laughter (Isaac), God intervened and preserved laughter as an essential part of our journey of faith.

PDL as part of our prayer life

When you consider our prayer life, would it not compliment our faith journey to include prayers of PROTEST, DOUBT, AND LAUGHTER in our reaching out to God.

We have recently seen large numbers of people engaged in protests against the murder of George Floyd. Our brother’s blood is crying out to God. Our prayers of protest are a healthy expression that such injustice in God’s world is not right.

There is plenty of time for giving expression to our DOUBTS generated in our current crisis. Honestly held and expressed doubts to God are frequently a cutting edge to our faith journey. It provides an opportunity for God to enable us to grow in our faith and expand the range of our trust in the sovereignty of God.

PRAYERS OF LAUGHTER

Laughter enables us to gain perspective and recognize that God, not us, is the center of the universe. When you can laugh at yourself and your pretensions and at the megalomania of others, you are in a better position to not be consumed by the anxiety around us. It may also reduce your blood pressure.

bit.ly/Godlaughs