Adoration
April 18, 2006 update: A reader emailed in Psalm 34 which I added to the list below and also used for my quiet time today. The Psalms, of course, should be pretty rich in the adoration area:
I went with the College and Career Group at my church to the spring retreat of the Baptist Conference of New England this weekend, and had a great time. One of the highlights was about 10 of us hanging around the campfire even though it was too windy for the fire to be of very much help in staying warm. We just sort of got real close and did the rotisserie thing. One person there was very intentional about keeping the conversation on track which was a great example. So often I steer toward small talk because its more comfortable.
One of the things that came up was the question of how do we praise God on a daily basis. We had some trouble coming up with good answers. It made me think of our last C&CG meeting where we spent the whole time in prayer, in the following order: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. We did the confession individually (silently) but the rest in small or large groups. The thing that I noticed was that we struggled the most with adoration. I think its something we tend to not practice much in our prayers. When we were in this category people were mostly doing thanksgiving more than adoration. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with mixing categories of course, it happens in prayers in the Bible all the time. But just the same it seems we're just not used to saying words of adoration to God.
So for a few days I'm going to be spending my time in the Word looking for examples of adoration. Please leave a comment if you know of any, or with any thoughts on the original question of how do we praise God on a daily basis. Here's what I have so far from my time today, which concentrated on the New Testament:
Psalm 34 The first of probably many Psalms that will be added to this list. I suppose I could just say "the Psalms" but I'll stick with ones that I actually have read. This one was submitted by a reader as a personal favorite so I checked it out. I especially like: "I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame."
Ephesians 1:3-14. Our blessings through the Father, then through the Son, then through the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 3:14-21. A prayer of supplication that is saturated with adoration. 20 and 21 are pure adoration.
Revelation 1:4-8
Revelation 4:8-11
Revelation 5:9-14
I went with the College and Career Group at my church to the spring retreat of the Baptist Conference of New England this weekend, and had a great time. One of the highlights was about 10 of us hanging around the campfire even though it was too windy for the fire to be of very much help in staying warm. We just sort of got real close and did the rotisserie thing. One person there was very intentional about keeping the conversation on track which was a great example. So often I steer toward small talk because its more comfortable.
One of the things that came up was the question of how do we praise God on a daily basis. We had some trouble coming up with good answers. It made me think of our last C&CG meeting where we spent the whole time in prayer, in the following order: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. We did the confession individually (silently) but the rest in small or large groups. The thing that I noticed was that we struggled the most with adoration. I think its something we tend to not practice much in our prayers. When we were in this category people were mostly doing thanksgiving more than adoration. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with mixing categories of course, it happens in prayers in the Bible all the time. But just the same it seems we're just not used to saying words of adoration to God.
So for a few days I'm going to be spending my time in the Word looking for examples of adoration. Please leave a comment if you know of any, or with any thoughts on the original question of how do we praise God on a daily basis. Here's what I have so far from my time today, which concentrated on the New Testament:
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1 Comments:
Bummer that I had to miss out on what you thought was the best part of the retreat! I noticed the same thing about the C&C prayers, but I can't imagine adoring God and not immediately being thnakful for Him being adorable.
I think we feel like for our adoration to be real and sincere it needs to be validated by something. Why are we adoring this thing/person? What seems to be more true saying
"I love you, you're great, you're the beste ever"
or
"I love you because you are kind. You are great because you know the depths of my heart and you love me the same. You're the best thing that's ever hapened to me and my life has drasticaly changed because of you."
I think that latent in the latter expression is a good measure of thankfulness.
And I have no idea about that Kieth Green song. I'm the worst person to ask about this weekend's worship. I already mentioned everything I felt like I got out of it.
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