ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS HOLY
God’s holiness is not a better version of the best we know. God is utterly and supremely untainted. His holiness stands apart—unique and incomprehensible.
Revelation 4:8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”
Praise the HOLY God.
Proclaim to God and any other beings listening that God is Holy. Praise God because He has always been holy. Praise God because He will always be holy.
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 Embrace. Ask God to use their work to proclaim the gospel to young mothers and fathers. Ask God to use Embrace to rescue unborn children..
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 5:1-11 – English Standard Version
5 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
As we read James rebuking “those rich people” who have done harm to others and who stand in danger of terrible judgment, we must be very careful to have nothing in us that resembles “gloating.” Proverbs 27:17,18 says, “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.” This doesn’t mean that if anyone gloats over the fall of an evil doer then that person will somehow magically escape judgment. The idea is that your gloating may very well be seen as a greater sin than the evil you perceive in the other person. God’s wrathful gaze may become fixed on you because of your heart attitude. God will judge unrepentant evil in all forms. This includes the evil of delighting in the downfall of others. This is different than wanting evil people to be stopped. It is not wrong to want someone who is harming others to be caught and punished. It is not wrong to be angry at the harm done to you or to others by evil people. The warning is against being self-righteous and believing that we are less deserving of judgment than anyone else is. We should heed Solzhenitsyn’s words, “The line dividing good and evil runs through every heart.”