Adoration

"Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom." — Psalm 145:3

In our new series, we're looking at prayer. Specifically at the ACTS formula, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Each week we're tackling a new letter. The first of which was Adoration.

On Sunday we looked at Psalm 145, a Psalm of David, which gets at the heart of Adoration. In her message, Katie described Adoration as "Deep delight in God." I thought about how perfect that description is, and I thought about how often I give that when going to God in prayer.

Prayer is a time when we connect and build our relationship with God. But often we think of it differently, or at least we act differently. We go to God with our list of wants and needs, almost like going to the store to shop. How often have you stopped in front of Wal-Mart to revel in its glory? We wouldn't. That's absurd, to be honest, but that's what makes our prayer life different than a shopping list — or at least it should.

How do we come before God? How do we move more toward a posture of Adoration? It begins with remembering who God is and how great He is. I remember when I was studying the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan, one of the things he starts with is this look at the complexity of the universe. He starts at the micro level, looking at bacteria and DNA, the building blocks of life. Then he pulls out to consider our place in the cosmos. It's nothing short of breathtaking.

Then we remember God made everything, from the tiny and complex building blocks of life to the expanse of the cosmos. Chan said when seeing that the only response he could think of is to stop and worship, and that seems completely understandable. God is great and His works are a marvel that's too great for us to fully comprehend. That is the essence of Adoration, and it's how we should approach God in prayer.

But, too often, things jump the line and get in the way of the only Adoration that is worth our time, that of God. The challenge is to remember to put God first in our Adoration, and to put that Adoration first when it comes to our time in prayer.