I have talked to many people who say that while God is the first person to Whom they turn for comfort and for help in bad times, they have a harder time remembering to thank God for all of the good in their lives. When something goes right for them, they don't attribute it to God's grace or goodness. They assume it's because of their own hard work or "good luck". And as for praying as a form of worship, well, most people don't even think of prayer in that way.

A long time ago — so long ago that I don't even remember who — someone taught me a way to pray that can help us to remember different ways we need to be praying to God. It is called the "ACTS" form of prayer, for Acclamation (or Adoration), Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. The prayer begins with a time of acclamation — praising God and offering our love to God. Next comes a confession of sins — whatever we feel we've done to offend God or our loved ones. Then follows a time of giving thanks to God for the blessings in our lives — giving God credit for being active in our lives during good times as well as bad ones. And finally, we come to supplication — asking God for what we need and for what the people around us need.

Now this doesn't mean that those "arrow" prayers that we make sometimes — the "Thank You, God, that I avoided that car wreck!" or "God, please help me out of this mess!" — are wrong. We all throw up prayers to God that are immediate to our needs and are fresh in the moments of our lives. And that's okay, because God hears those prayers. But having a framework to build our prayer time around can help enrich and expand our faith and increase our connection to God.

Prayer: God, help us to remember all of the ACTS of prayer: worshipping You, asking Your forgiveness, thanking You, and asking for Your help, so that we may have a richer relationship with You. Amen.

I remember when I first felt the love of God. I was at a turning point in my life, sort of: my daughter was a baby, and it had suddenly struck me that I had a little girl in my life that I was going to have to teach how to be a woman. Somehow this seemed to be much more daunting than raising a boy. I felt totally inadequate to the task and took the opportunity to give myself a hard time about how I had lived my life to that point. Does it not seem to be easier to see the sin in oneself when one has to think about telling one's children about it someday? Thus one night, I sat in the dark, praying about this and asking God how on earth I was going to be a good example for this child. Then the strangest thing happened. I felt a warmth flow from the top of my head, down through my body and to my feet — a warm, shining feeling that I knew was pure love. At about the same time I heard (or felt, almost?) a voice saying, "You are my child, and I love you, no matter what." At the same time, I knew that the most important thing I could do for my daughter was to love her, so that she could grow up to love others. That gave me the hope I needed to be a good mom to her — hope that came to me through God's loving embrace of me, with all of my faults and foibles.

God's love is like that. For those of us who believe, God's love gives us hope that no matter how far short we fall, we can always turn to God for forgiveness and acceptance. For those who don't yet believe, the love of God can bring them to a place of faith and hope for the future. God's love is unwavering and reliable, and the hope it brings to our lives never ends.

Prayer: Loving God, in Your love we have hope — hope for a better life, hope to be the person who truly reflects Your goodness, hope for a future where Your kingdom reigns. Help us to bring Your love to others that they may have this same hope in You. Amen.

One recent weekend, a cold front stalled over our portion of east Tennessee, causing rain to fall in amounts not seen in several years. My part of Knoxville received somewhere between five and six inches of rain; other parts to the south and west of us received over six inches. I've always wanted to live on the lake, and for awhile on Saturday and Sunday, my dream came true: our backyard flooded, becoming a large pond that was probably deep enough to swim in. Fortunately, our house is high enough to have remained well away from the flood waters, and we and our pets and all of our stuff stayed safe.

During the storms of our lives, God is our high ground; God is the protective covering under which we can hide. As a mother bird covers her young with her wings to protect them from the rain, so God covers us with His loving embrace, keeping us safe until the bad times pass. Even when we are caught out in the storms of life — because sometimes trouble finds us no matter how we try to hide — God is there to comfort us, to wrap us in His loving arms, to ease our suffering, and to calm our spirits. God covers us with compassion and keeps us close until the storm passes.

Prayer: Protective God, You are with us through the worst storms of our lives, keeping us safe in Your loving embrace. Guide us through the difficulties of our lives, so that we may tell others of Your promise of shelter. Amen.