Adoration

            My favorite Christmas carol is “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him” just the word ‘adore’ has so much feeling in it. It means to love and respect someone deeply; worship, venerate. And the melody of the refrain is also in the right key for me (don’t ask me what that key is; I just know I can hit the notes.) When I give it my full voice, I truly feel the spirit of worship deep in my being.
            If I could bottle that feeling and break it out whenever I’m just not feeling my faith, it would be so awesome. Yet, I wonder if it would lose its zest were I to have access to it all the time? Would it become routine? Would it be like a steady diet of rich foods? That would not be so good.
In the book of Daniel, we read about Daniel and his friends becoming part of the king’s chosen. He was to be fed food from the king’s table, rich foods; but he asked for special favor to eat a diet of vegetables for ten days (Sorry vegans, I’m not promoting the lifestyle). It was risky on the part of the chief official in charge of these men but he gave it a go anyway. As a result of avoiding the king’s food, Daniel and his friends stood out in strength, appearance and intelligence. (See Daniel chapter 1)
But I digress. Faith is not a feeling. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  Faith is a verb, it is active and living inside of each of us. It is faith that gives meaning to the way we respond to life in general. Many people get confused and believe that faith is feeling. Adoration is a feeling, anger is a feeling, happiness is a feeling, excitement is a feeling, and so many other feelings are out there and they affect faith but they are not faith. Faith determines how we respond to all these feelings. Everyone has faith in something or someone, even the atheist has faith that there is no God.
This is likely where self-fulfilling prophecy comes into play. If you believe you will fail, you will fail. Conversely, if you believe you can succeed, you can, it may take a lot more effort than anticipated, but perseverance builds faith too. Our beliefs shape our lives. I believe that God loves me and that leads me to love others. But I truly adore Him!

Thanks for meandering with me!

Posted by

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How are you?

Image
            When I wake, one of the first things I do is say, “Good morning God!” Some days are more enthusiastic than others. When I greet another human being, I usually follow that greeting with, “how are you?” This morning it occurred to me that I don’t ask God how he is. I have been contemplating this idea, how are you God? Obviously, given his attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience it is easy to follow the train of thought that he has everything in check. Despite that; I think of him in human terms and I can’t help but feel he is; not mad but disappointed (cringe). When he looks at creation, like a parent gazing on the wreckage of a kid’s toy room, wouldn’t there be disappointment?             As I contemplated that, my meandering mind led me to consider guilt. The guilt that leads to the disappointment of others. Every culture I have known lays claim t...
Read more

I Don't Understand

Image
              I was walking with my good friend Patti this morning as we do most Saturdays, and we were discussing dependance on God versus a bank account when from out of my coat pocket my phone speaks and says, “I don’t understand.” In the moment it made us chuckle, but it is so appropriate because the phone (a worldly item) can’t understand that kind of faith. The world doesn’t understand that kind of faith. I have often heard stories of men and women of faith totally dependent on God, prayers being answered in supernatural ways at the very last minute. (Read up on George Mueller who ran an orphanage depending entirely on God). I desire that type of faith because try as I might, at times I still lean on my bank accounts and fear can creep in when my funds are low.             There is no way to completely understand the love of God, His ways are incomprehensible to the...
Read more

Masterpiece

Image
              As a young person, I was fond of painting, not great at it but reasonable. I set it aside when I fell in love and got married. In these days of isolation I needed to find some other ways to occupy myself other than baking and decided to get back to my paint brushes.   To get used to handling the brushes again I got myself a paint by number,             If you have never tried one of these let me give you a little insight. You receive a canvas with an image divided up into numbered areas and little pots of paint with corresponding numbers. Then you begin a sort of scavenger hunt trying to fill in all the spots of a particular number. Sounds simple enough, however some of these areas are so tiny they are easily overlooked. The tiny spots are important though, they give that little flourish that can draw the eye or round out an object.    ...
Read more