Monday, October 29, 2007

O COME LET US ADORE HIM

O COME LET US ADORE HIM

This devotion was prompted by one that appeared here a few weeks ago.  Diane was writing about passionate prayer and prayer being fervent and ongoing.  Something she said really caught my attention.  She wrote that while it is wonderful to have that period of time "set aside" to pray (whether it be morning or later on in the day), it is not enough to think that this time of prayer is sufficient - or even completely pleasing - to God.

Since that Victory Call appeared my Sunday School class has begun a study on the subject of prayer, and I am convicted once again that my weak and puny prayer life does not honor God as it should and my life, as a result, is not as victorious as it could be.

It seems as if my prayer life so often sinks to the level of a list of "I want, I need, please do this or that."  Not that there is anything inherently wrong in bringing our requests to God.  On the contrary, He WANTS us to do that.  Philippians 4:6 tells us to let our requests be made known unto God.  But prayer is so much more than that.

When my Sunday School class began our study on prayer, someone in the class, when asked to give her definition of prayer, used the little acronym "ACTS"  -  Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.  Unfortunately, Type A personality that I am, I go directly to the Supplication part and the other parts often get the status of fill-ins.

I have made a very conscious effort in the past couple of weeks to focus on Adoration.  Not that it is hard to tell God how much I love Him, how wonderful He is, how great He is, how awesome His power and majesty are.  In fact, I have tried to spend some prayer time each day ONLY worshipping and adoring Him.  No "please do this" or "I want that."  Just concentrating on the words from Psalm 48:1, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised..." or from Psalm 29, "Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."

So I find myself going back to the Psalms once again as I appreciate anew the relationship David had with God.  Even in the depths of terrible, crushing sin, David found that praise, worship and adoration were necessary to prepare his heart to come before a holy God to seek forgiveness, cleansing and restoration before he could attempt to request God act on his behalf.

It is no coincidence that so much of what I am reading and studying is devoted to some aspect of prayer.  I know the Holy Spirit is convicting me about my often ineffectual prayer life.  I am praying that as I delve more deeply into the topic of prayer that my "passion for prayer" will grow.  That it will cease to be a subject to be studied and become my very heart's desire.  That I will experience a renewed passion to spend time with God worshipping and adoring Him first and praising Him for who He is long before I get to my "wish list."  

Lynn Randall

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