An ABC of Faith

We now turn to a series that I have entitled “The ABC of Faith”, and so we start this week with the letter “A”.

Adoration:

Those of St Nicholas Methodist Church who join with our sisters and brothers from the other Topsham Churches for our Good Friday Walk of witness, will recall the words recited at each station. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” But what do we mean by adore.

It was pope John Paul II who said, “Through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the Gospel. Anyone who prays to the Saviour draws the whole world with him and raises it to God. Those who stand before the Lord are therefore fulfilling an eminent service. They are presenting to Christ all those who do not know him or are far from him: they keep watch in his presence on their behalf.”

Much earlier in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (11:1) we read, “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.” This is the essence of adoration, defined as “very strong love or worship for someone”.

We recall how Jesus searched Peter’s heart following the resurrection with those haunting words, “Do you love me?”  And maybe that is a question that we need to answer each day of our Christian journey.

The devout Saint (William Temple) summed up adoration as: "Worshiping God is nothing but opening our hearts to the love of God, quickening our conscience to the Holiness of God, purging our imagination with the beauty of God, filling our minds with the truth of God and committing our purposes to the will of God."

Now there’s a task to delve into today.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I give you all the glory because you are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You are worthy of all my praise and worship, and I am filled with awe when I think about the great things you have done upon the earth. You are holy and righteous and you rule your people with justice. I praise you because you are faithful and true, and I know that I can always trust in you.