Pray or PRAY?

I’m grateful to Jan, Dan and John for leading worship so I could have a wonderful vacation. In addition to helping my girls transition to their new summer schedule and taking some day-trip adventures with Pegasus, I enjoyed having space in my schedule to double the time allotted for daily prayer.

People make prayer so complicated. As rest for our souls, it should be as simple as sleeping. Just as bodies need to sleep, our souls need time to relax in God’s love. Of course, insomniac that I am, I do like to make prayer complicated by looking up different ways to pray. In books I’ve read just over the past month, four different acronyms have been offered as instructions for prayer: ACTS, SACRED, PRAY (the least creative but easiest to remember), and the Lutheran ITCP (Luther must have lived before the time of good acronyms).

As in all these examples, ITCP stands for a way to pray in steps, the way Luther prayed with the scriptural verses that are highlighted in the catechisms; first with instruction (“what is this?”), then with thanksgiving, confession, and petition. Handy, and it works. But there’s no need to go looking for the best acronym. The best kind of prayer is any that you will do.

I also happen to believe that if God wants or needs you to have a particular kind of prayer life, he will lead you to it. Until then, the best acronym for all of us would definitely be KISS. (And yes, I want you to look that one up.)

with love, Pastor Chelsea