ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS PERSONAL
God is a self-conscious Being capable of thought, will, and interaction with His creation. We can see that God is personal, especially as we read the Psalms. In the Psalms, David refers to God as “my shepherd” or “my portion” or “my light.” God is not just a portion or a Shepherd, but God is a personal shepherd to David.
Psalm 16:5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.
Praise the Personal God
Praise God because He can relate with you personally. He is infinite and all-powerful, but He can also relate with you. Praise God because He can personally lead you and shepherd you.
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 your friends and family who do not know Christ. Ask God to give you opportunities to have gospel conversations.
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 4:4-10 – New Living Translation
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Why does God oppose the proud? Partly because human pride is in itself opposition to God. The proud either overtly or covertly live challenging God’s supreme authority. God is not insecure and he is no tyrant, but he is God. The disparity between his goodness, wisdom, and power and ours is beyond description. God doesn’t have to actively come after human pride because his very nature opposes it. A human beating his fist against a steel door will find that the door is unmoved but his hand is broken. The door by nature of its strength exists in opposition to the human’s will to batter it down. God is not an impersonal thing like a steel door, the point is simply that God is not rushing here and there trying to stamp out human pride as if it were a threat to his sovereignty. Human pride will always be opposed by the reality of God’s power. Now to the good news. God gives grace to the humble. To those who recognize their great need and his great power, God will freely give them what they need to thrive under his dominion. Far from tyrant, God is a good, good Father. He has plenty of grace to go around and is very generous in distributing it to those who have humble hearts. Humble hearts are positioned to receive the grace that God will pour out on them.