Adoration

Worship God for who He is.

This first prayer step is a real refocus of our heart onto Him. It seems that as we grow in the discipline and in the delight of prayer, we naturally spend more and more of our time on this first element.

Adoration is different from thanksgiving. Here, we aren't thanking him for what he has done... Not yet. We will first adore him for some of His specific character attributes.

God is unlike anything or anyone we could ever know or imagine. He is one of a kind, unique and without comparison. Even describing him with mere words truly falls short of capturing who he is – our words simply cannot to justice to describe our holy God.

Still, God possess attributes that we can know (even in just in part) and he’s given us his Word as a means to understand himself. Here are a few of God’s attributes. Take time to meditate on a few of these. Think about what they mean, and how they are unique to Him.

God is infinite

He is self-existing, without origin

"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." - Colossians 1:17

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” – Psalm 147:5

The fact that God is self-existent -- that he was created by nothing and has always existed forever -- is perhaps one of the hardest attributes of God for the believer to understand. In our limitedness, grasping the nature of our limit-less God is like holding onto water as it rages down a river. Indeed, A. W. Tozer writes this about the confusing, head-spinning attribute of God’s infinity:

‘To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him.”

God is immutable

He is consistent. He never changes.

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Malachi 3:6

God does not change. Who he is never changes. His attributes are the same from before the beginning of time into eternity. His character never changes – he never gets “better” or “worse.” His plans do not change. His promises do not change.

This ought to be a source of incredible joy for believers.
Sam Storms writes about the good news of God’s unchanging nature:

“What all this means, very simply, is that God is dependable! Our trust in him is therefore a confident trust, for we know that he will not, indeed cannot, change. His purposes are unfailing, his promises unassailable. It is because the God who promised us eternal life is immutable that we may rest assured that nothing, not trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword shall separate us from the love of Christ. It is because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever that neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not even powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39)!"

God is omniscient

He knows all.

“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” - Isaiah 46:9-10

God is omniscient, which means he knows everything. He can be everywhere, at the same time. And He never sleeps or slumbers, He's aware every moment of every day, exactly what we're up against. He knows our way, and is with us always. There's no place on this earth we can go that He doesn't see and know of.”

Tozer writes about God’s omniscience:
“God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.”

Because God is all-knowing, we can trust that he knows everything we’re going through today and everything we will go through tomorrow. When we meditate on this truth, especially in light of his other attributes of goodness and love, it makes it easier to trust him with all we have going on in our lives, from the very serious to the silly and mundane.

God is self-sufficient

He has no needs.

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” – John 5:26

As limited humans, we have incredible needs, which left unfulfilled, result in death. God, however, has never once been in need of anything. God is perfectly complete within his own being.

In a blog post on Reformation21.org, Scott Swain writes that the self-sufficiency of God means he “possesses infinite riches of being, wisdom, goodness, and power in and of himself (Gen 17:1; John 5:26; Eph 3:16). Because he possesses these unfathomable riches in the perfect knowledge and love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ( Matthew 11:25-27; John 17:24-26), God is the "blessed" or "happy" God (1 Timothy 1:11; 6:15).”

Because God is self-sufficient, we can go to him to satisfy all our needs. We never have to worry about “drying up” his never-ending well of goodness, peace, mercy and grace. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)

God is just

He Is Infinitely, Unchangeably Right and Perfect in All He Does

"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” – Duteronomy 32:4

What does it mean that God is just? It means more than he is simply fair. It means he always does what is right and good toward all men. Likewise, although this is hard for many to accept, his sentencing of evil, unrepentant sinners to hell is also right and good.

A natural question that arises from this is, how then can a just God justify the unjust (as each of us are without Christ!)? Tozer answers this by reminding us that we find the answer through the Christian doctrine of justification and redemption. “Through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner.” His mercy is does not forbid him to exercise his justice, nor does his justice forbid him to exercise his mercy. He is both fully merciful and fully just.

In light of God’s other attributes of goodness, mercy, love and grace, there are some who might, in error, say that God is too kind to punish the ungodly. But to believe this means we dull the reality of his infinite, unchanging justice. God will have justice for sin, either from Christ’s atoning death or, for those who will not accept it, eternal wrath in hell.

“Let’s assume that all men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. From the mass of humanity, God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them. What do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice” - R. C. Sproul

God is loving

He infinitely, unchangeably loves us.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." -1 John 4:7-8

Love. The word “staggers before its task of even describing the reality,” writes R.C. Sproul in his book, God’s Love. As with all attributes, we can only begin to comprehend God’s love in light of his other attributes. The love of God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite.

“It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God,” Tozer writes, “that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever. God’s love is active, drawing us to himself. His love is personal. He doesn’t love humanity in some vague sense, he loves humans. He loves you and me. And his love for us knows no beginning and no end.

You're doing great.

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