We’re learning how to pray this month at church using the model ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. The strength of using a model like ACTS is:
1) It helps to ensure our prayers are not all about ‘me’; it helps us to focus on God – who he is and what he has done.
2) It gives structure to prayer time, which helps stop our minds from wandering.
This article focuses on A – Adoration.
Why do we find it hard to adore God?
In Australia, our culture is to tear down, not build up. We tell quips and jokes about our weaknesses, don’t talk about our strengths, and are not very good at praising each other. When visiting speakers try to get our respect, they start not by telling us how good they are, but by telling us a funny story, like of their hopeless fishing feats or their parenting disaster, that helps us see that they’re on our level so we can relate with them. I wonder, though, if this practice has entered our prayer lives, making it hard to praise God. To adore God? To tell him how wonderful he is?
Adoration describes our praise of God. In our fast-paced, busy world, it is easy to forget to praise God. I use an app called PrayerMate to help me order my prayers, and I recently noticed that I haven’t entered any adoration points into my list of things to pray, so it often gets skipped. I wonder if you’re the same, forgetting to praise God, forgetting to adore him. Maybe you’ve tried, and it feels unnatural, or maybe you don’t know what to say.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Why we shouldn’t find it hard to adore God?
Prayers in the Bible rarely forget to praise God. Take Nehemiah’s prayer for a favourable outcome with the King – he prays, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Nehemiah 1:5). He praises God for who he is: the awesome God, and for what he does: keeps his covenant and love. The Psalms, too, have countless verses of praise and adoration for God. Take for example Psalm 8; the Psalmist declares, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Even when times are tough, there is still a note of adoration in the prayers, like in Psalm 73, when the oppressed pray-er starts with adoration, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart” (Psalm 73:1).
And if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we have so much to praise God for. The apostle Paul, at the beginning of Ephesians 3, can barely contain his praise as he declares, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3 NIV). He then goes on to praise God for his riches towards us in Christ – election, redemption, adoption, revelation and the gift of the Spirit, to name a few.
So, how are we to adore God?
The problem is not that we don’t have anything to praise God for—we do, but sometimes it feels unnatural, especially if we’re not used to it. Our culture has crept into our prayer life. We have to counter this.
Adoration in the Bible is about praising God for who He is and the works He has done for us as He keeps his promises. Ephesians 1 could be a great place to start. Your prayer could look like this,
Awesome God, I praise you for adopting me in Christ.
Heavenly Father – I praise you for richness towards me, though I don’t deserve it,
My Great God – I praise you for your tremendous love and sending your Son to redeem me.
God’s word gives us so much material for praise. Every part of Scripture will give us something to praise God for, so we need to regularly ask the question: What can I praise God for here? Is it his character, his mercy, his compassion, or his love? Or is it something he has done in keeping his promises – salvation, answered prayer, mighty works?
We’re not good at adoration in Australia. Still, as God’s children, it is something we should excel at because we have a God who is awesome in his glory and works wonders (Exodus 15:11). So give it a go, and add ADORATION to your regular prayer time.
Daniel Faricy
