The acronym A-C-T-S (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) is helpful to use as we pray, but we don’t have to cover each point every time we pray.

At least, not when we pray without ceasing. There are many times throughout the day when we are not concentrating on something we’re doing. Our minds slip into neutral, our thoughts drift without direction. Praying without ceasing is developing a conscious awareness of the Lord during those moments, and using them to think prayers of adoration, praise and worship, of confession if we’ve sinned, of thanksgiving, of asking for the help we or others need.

My experience has been that a daily quiet time sets the stage for such unceasing prayer. Not that I always pray that way, but without the quiet time, I don’t even come close. It’s in our first prayers of the day that we’re able to be still and consider the Lord in all His majesty, a time to enter the throne room of heaven. It’s a moment of worship that we need, an outlet for the expression of our love, our devotion, our yieldedness. It comes, not because of a checklist on prayer, but because we know Him and love Him and want more than anything to give Him our lives. Adoration, praise and worship come first, because they must.