Making your requests known to God
Last of a 4-part teaching series
by Dave Ficere
The ACTS model of prayer (adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication) has helped countless Christians throughout the ages by serving as a road map on how to approach the Lord.
Supplication is a fancy word for ask, but it has a much deeper meaning. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “to ask humbly and earnestly or to ask earnestly of God.” The word is used only five times in the entire Bible, all of them in the New Testament. In Philippians 4:6 Paul admonishes readers, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Matthew 7:7-11 is an excellent teaching about persistence in prayer.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Jesus stands ready, willing and able to give good things to you! He simply wants you to ask with persistence. Picture yourself at a friend’s house, knocking at their door repeatedly because you really need to see them. That’s the picture of persistence God paints in Matthew 7.
That same determination in prayer is also taught by Jesus in Luke 18:1-8 in the parable of the persistent widow:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming’.” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus wasn’t teaching that God is like the unjust judge, doling out favors grudgingly, but instead He was making the point about persistence in prayer. In the parable, you are the widow while God is the judge. As you’re persistent in making your needs known to the Father, He will honor that determination by answering those requests. However, keep in mind that sometimes the answer is “no” or “not now,” but sometimes it is “yes!”
The point of supplication is to simply ask with persistence. As you do so, remember the goal of ACTS is to properly prepare your heart before asking, not to approach God with just a laundry list of requests.
By utilizing ACTS, you will be preparing your heart by worshipping the Lord, confessing all known sin, thanking Him for His goodness and then making your requests known. Jesus is able to do far more abundantly than all that you ask or think, according to His power at work within you (Ephesians 3:20).
By giving Him the glory, you will be amazed at how it revolutionizes your prayer life for the nation and its leaders while deepening your love for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
For further study:
What additional insights to each of these verses provide about supplication?
- Ephesians 6:18
- I Timothy 2:1
- I Timothy 5:5
- Hebrews 5:7
Dave Ficere is one of the newest writers for the Presidential Prayer Team. His articles and writing have been featured in a wide array of media including radio promotions, devotional publications, websites, magazines and newsletters. Dave is married to Patt and works and lives in a suburb of Phoenix, AZ.