ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
SOLITARINESS OF GOD There was a time when creation, even heaven, didn’t exist, but God’s glory did because He is from everlasting. There was a time when neither angels, nor humans were praising Him and He was still altogether wonderful. He is self-contained, self-sufficient, and self-satisfied. He was under no compulsion to create out of necessity or deficiency. He created all things simply to display His glory. God could have chosen not to create and He still would be The Perfect One.
Psalm 50:2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appears in radiance.
Praise God for His Solitariness
Praise Him because He is perfect. If you could go back and visit the time before creation, God would still exist in all His goodness and glory. His perfection and wonder is complete even without all that He has made. Praise Him for what He has made and done even though He did not need to do any of it to prove His wonder and glory.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for the conflict in the Ukraine. Pray the fighting would cease. Pray for believers in Ukraine ask God to strengthen them and use them.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Acts 17:22-31 – Christian Standard Bible
The Areopagus Address
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man[a] he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
What are you “building?” Are you building a career, a family, a business, a hobby, a ministry, a plan for retirement, a relationship? Whatever you are building, God is interested in the outcome. He desires that we build with excellence and passion and faithfulness. But remember that whatever you are building, God is interested in the process. He desires that we build in a way that grows our faith in him and our capacity to love others. One way to discern whether you are building for you or for God is to pay attention to what happens when someone or something stands in your way. What happens when you face obstacles or adversity? What happens when what you are building is “shut down” by circumstances outside your control? It is normal to become anxious, frustrated, even angry. But if you stay there in anxiety, frustration and anger then perhaps you have lost sight of the real purpose for “building.” When our building plans are frustrated, we must acknowledge that God is the one who determines the outcomes of our lives. He sets the boundaries; we are simply to be found faithful inside those boundaries. This is not an excuse for passivity or cynicism. This is the foundation for a resilient life.