Choose to Listen...and Believe
This morning, I came upstairs in the dark for my reading time, to pray, to listen to some resources online and start my day. A friend recently told me if I use the acronym ACTS when I pray, it would change my prayers. She wasn’t wrong! From day one, it has changed my focus, the content of my prayers and my confidence in my God! A is Adoration. Begin your prayers by adoring God, by declaring Who He is and reminding yourself all the things He is. Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace, Jehovah Jireh, your provider, El Roi – He Sees (and Helps!), My Redeemer, Great Physician, My Shepherd…He is Amazing. He is Faithful and True. I started there and started cleaning off the little table for my “quiet time” things and saw one of my cd’s peeking out from under the things I moved. “The Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns. I pulled it up on You Tube and read these words: …“But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me, reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed, the waves they keep on telling me time and time again, ‘boy, you’ll never win, you’ll never win!’ But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story, the Voice of Truth says ‘do not be afraid.’ The Voice of Truth says ‘this is for My Glory’. Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth.”
There IS power in our choices! We can choose which voices we listen to, which messages we take in and make personal, which words we dwell on and allow to shape our attitudes and moods. “I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth. The Voice that tells me I am loved, I am looked on with rejoicing and with favor. The Voice that tells me I am never forsaken and left behind.
My friend was absolutely right! It has changed my prayers! Before I get to my to-do list, before I get to my I have to have list. I marvel in The Voice of Truth that breaks through the sleepy, the discouraged, the overwhelmed times in my life and tells me I am His, and nothing can take me from His hand of provision, protection and purpose. I move on to the other letters…
I Adore, I Confess – repent of the things that I do, say, think and believe that are opposed to What He tells me. I Thank Him for so many blessings, past present and future that He has gifted me with, and then, by the time I get to the S of Supplication, it’s no longer a begging session of God I can’t make it if You don’t….(fill in the blank). It’s letting the adored, Grace-filled, Abba Father Who loves me know that I know I don’t have control over the hard situations that are hurting me and the people I am praying for, but I am confident in the fact that He is, does, and will. Try it for yourself! Try praying ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and then Supplication. Watch your Faith rise and grow!
I will choose to listen to, and believe, the Voice of Truth! <3
