“Adoration in Prayer”

Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40; Exodus 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Matthew 24:9-14

Why are some people so afraid of prayer? Oh, I don’t mean afraid to hear prayer, or to have someone pray for the needs of others, or to even be involved in prayer. But even though most never describe their hesitation this way, I believe that many folks are afraid to pray out loud with and for others. Some say that they don’t think that they pray well enough, that they don’t know what to pray for, that they don’t want to say the wrong thing when they pray.

The truth is that prayer is nothing more than a conversation with our Almighty God. It is, admittedly, a different kind of conversation than we might have with our friends, but prayer is just a time to join together with others to rejoice in God and in who he is for us, as well as an opportunity for us to share our most intimate needs and desires with the One who can actually do something about those needs.

For the next four weeks, we will be considering one of the aids to prayer – an acronym that helps us to frame our approach to prayer, and one that gives us a start on what and how we can pray. The acronym is A-C-T-S, with each letter standing for one important aspect of prayer. The letters, and their significance, are:
A – Adoration
C – Confession
T – Thanksgiving
S – Supplication, or petition

Each week, we will be addressing one of these issues, and today we begin at the beginning – with Adoration and a few passages from scripture that give us a basis and a reason for our admiration and love of God.

Read Matthew 22:34-40

Our Lord is worthy of our love. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with our entire being, and that loving others with that same, deep committed way is no less important than loving God. And what does it take to love like that? It helps if we understand that the order that Jesus placed on these commandments is not a random thing. When we truly and fully love God, it is then that we have the capacity and ability to love others.

Love is one, if not the most powerful emotion that we will ever share. And yet, it is dependent on so much more than just a will to love. Love requires trust, and compassion, and putting others’ needs ahead of our own, and a desire to spend time and effort with them, and our wanting to know more about them, and to share our joys as well as our struggles with them, and the list could go on for quite a while.

But it isn’t all that easy to love some people! And you have already been naming a few of them silently, haven’t you! If we put our love for them first, it will be strained to the point of breaking, to say the least. But if we learn to love the Lord first, and experience the love that He has for us, we come to understand that this love has nothing to do with the things that we, or they, do – there is no commandment that I have ever read that says we should like them and their ways– only that we must love them as Christ has loved us!

Adoration begins with love, and love, in and of itself, must always begin with God.

Read Exodus 34:6-7

This passage is part of the account of Moses’ return to the summit of Mount Sinai to receive the second set of 10 Commandments. You’ll remember that he had broken the first set in a fit of rage over Israel’s sinfulness. The Lord has just come down in a cloud, and after he speaks these words of love to his servant, Moses worships him and asks for God’s forgiveness for not only himself, but for all of the people.

Moses is reminded of the compassionate and loving and forgiving nature of his Yahweh. And in that, we have to know that compassion and forgiveness can never exist outside of love – God’s, as well as our own. And Moses also hears that his Lord is gracious, that he never jumps to conclusions or anger or retribution like people do, that his love is boundless and his forgiveness is specifically for those things we do that go against all that he stands for. There is also judgment and condemnation and hurt in this love – there is no question of that – but the anger and hurt that the Lord feels only lasts a little while, and then we can be welcomed back into his love and passion.

How long does our pain and anger against others last?

Moses had destroyed the written commandments that the Lord had given, but he was given a second chance to stay in relationship with his Great Jehovah God. Through the many years before this – over 80 of them – Moses had a lot of ups and downs in this relationship, and he had even tried to escape from it, but God never gives up and this servant of the Most High God had now finally discovered what Godly love was all about. And in that discovery, he would be able to endure the trials that would come against him for the next 40 years, and he could now love his God with a true and faithful heart – at least most of the time.

How quickly do we welcome others back into relationship with us?

Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9

In the Matthew 22 passage that we read a few moments ago, Jesus quotes this commandment. Israel knows this as the Shema, which is the first word in these verses – “Hear”. And not only are the people to “hear” what God has to say, but they are called to remember the words in their hearts, and to share them with their children. They are to discuss them with each other – and not just once in a while, but all the time, no matter what the circumstances!

And just so they don’t forget, they are to wear this commandment, as well as others (Deuteronomy 11:13-21; Exodus 13:1-16) on their forehead (a reminder for their thoughts) and on their sleeve (to make them obvious in all they do) throughout the day. (Exodus 13:9)

Remember all that the Lord has done for you; remember all that you have received whether you have accepted it or not; whether you wanted or even like it or not. Give praise to the one who is always more generous, and more accurate, in responding to our needs than we can imagine!

But the greatest praise, and the greatest love, and the greatest obedience to Godly ways will never block the hatred and opposition that the world will bring against us. The passion and zeal of the Lord doesn’t stop the world and its ways, but it will see us through those times of testing.

Read Matthew 24:9-14

Our Lord is the God of Salvation, and why so many are opposed to his grace is a mystery to me. Scripture tells us that they can cause fear to grip our lives, they can cause us mental harm, they can even take our human life, but they can never destroy the love and life that comes to us from our God of Salvation. “…the one who stands firm to the end will be saved”. And this firmness is dependent upon the call of Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” Apparently, there is no great act that we have to perform, no amount of people who we must evangelize, no set number of mission trips to take, no demand to preach a lot of sermons - nothing that the world would expect as a required payment for such an incredible gift as eternal life. All we are asked to do is to love the Lord our God as faithfully and as honestly as we possibly can. And John 14:15-21 reminds us that if we truly love our God, then we will keep his commandments.

Isn’t all of this sufficient reason to show our love, our adoration, our admiration, to the one and only God of heaven and earth, the God of Redemption and Salvation, the God who will be with us every moment of every day for the rest of our life?

Will you pray with me this prayer of Adoration to our Lord and King?

Almighty God, great Lover of our soul, our Helper and Keeper of the Divine way, Creator and Guide for this life - Master, we are lost without you. By your death, our death has been destroyed, and by faith in your resurrection, we have received eternal life. Your glory illuminates our way, and by your grace, we are able to know the difference between your narrow path and the broad, neon-lined way of earth. All honor and praise to you – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that we might know the difference between earth’s wickedness and your righteousness.
We pray all these things in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.