ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS WISE
All God’s acts are accomplished through His infinite wisdom. He always acts for our good, which is
to conform us to Christ. Our good and His glory are inextricably bound together.
Proverbs 3:19-20
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;
by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
Praise the Wise God
Praise Him because He is forever wise. Praise Him because His wisdom and goodness are bound together. Praise Him because in His wisdom, He is acting to make us like Christ.
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 Youth Horizons. Ask God to encourage those at River mentoring children through Youth Horizons. Pray that these mentors would be faithful to invest in the children they are serving.
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 4:4-10 – English Standard Version
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
If I can be friends with two people at the same time then why can’t I be a friend of God and the world at the same time? The key is in the first phrase, “you adulterous people.” This is not about casual friendship but rather about a monogamous relationship. You can have many people you hold dear in your heart but you can only have one spouse. To use another analogy, you can only have one ruling authority. In the United States military there is never a time when a unit is without a commander and there is never a time when there is more than one commander at a time. Even our armed forces understand that it is impossible to serve two masters. The world that James is referring to is the system of human desires and programs set in opposition to God. This is not about some grand human conspiracy, it is simply the reality that the human heart unsurrendered to God will go in ways that are contrary to God. When you collect a bunch of these unsurrendered hearts into larger groups (societies, cultures) then you have “the world” in opposition to God. You cannot possibly be a good friend of the world and of God at the same time. What does friendship with the world look like? Go back over James up to this point. Look at the attitudes and actions he has described thus far. You will quickly see what friendship with the world looks like. You will also see how you cannot live this way and live God’s way at the same time. Are you conflicted and confused in your life right now? There are many possible reasons but one root cause may be that you are trying to serve two masters. It simply cannot be done.