Prayer of Adoration
Psalms 100
1. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
2. Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing
3. Know that the LORD Himself is God:
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him; bless His Name
5. For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And His faithfulness to all generations.
I think of all the Psalms this is the most joyful. It has only attention to God. Verse four hits on both sides of Adoration: Praise and Thanks. They go hand in hand. Often as I have prayed my prayer of thanksgiving, it gives way to a prayer of praise. It is like breathing… You exhale and inhale when you focus on just praising God. The joy one is given when you do the Prayer of Adoration simply because you touch the heart of God with this prayer.
It is much like when I showed my father a pretty rock when I was small. He would not dismiss even the most insignificant rock I had found like a piece of gravel. He would place it on the shelves of his rock cabinet. One I had colored with a crayon to make it prettier, and we talked about how the beauty of the earth doesn’t have to be enhanced by man. He put that rock on the shelf. It is still in his rock case even though he is gone.
When I come to God with my praises and thanksgiving. I am bringing Him an ordinary rock, but it touches God’s heart when I do. Just like I touched my father’s heart when I brought one to him. Sometimes He will shake His head at my backwards way of giving praise or thanks, and He will teach me a lesson of a deeper kind of Thanksgiving.
What keeps us from saying these kind of prayers every day. It is an excuse. I am too busy. I forgot, but whatever the excuse the truth is that God is not at the forefront of our lives until a crisis, or a desire causes us to call out to Him. We are telling God that he is not important to our lives until we need Him to be. This is not how it should be. Our days should start with praise of the day given to us, and thankfulness for that day. I had to learn this the hard way by walking to the edge of death, but I have known since October 6, 2001, that every day good or bad that I have lived has been a gift and I am thankful for all those days. I know I should not be here, yet I am only because He has given me all of those days.
To develop the Prayer of Adoration, we must take baby steps, and then ask God to reveal all the wonders that He places in front of us as messages of His work in our lives.
Prior to April 1995, I had been a basic prayer of thanksgiving and praise kind of person. I thought it was enough. Then an event happened that broke my heart to the core. I was caught between people I loved, and there was no way to make peace which I tried and failed. Instead, I became the scapegoat and took the brunt of some people’s anger. I was weary, and I needed rest. I went to the mountains, and stayed in Cherokee, North Carolina because it was close to the roads my father had built. I was alone. The first morning I went down to Fontana Lake, and there I was close to the dam, and saw the mists of fog lifting, and depth of green water behind the dam. There was a hawk crying out across the waters. I was alone with it all. I was always a wanderer at mt core, and that morning I felt a deeper call to wander deeper into my faith. I left there f much peace.
Later that same day, I took a ride up to the top of the Smoky mountains Clingman’s dome. I walked up there in the afternoon, and since it was before school was out, I was one of a few people there, and I drank in the sights. I looked at the marvel of my earthly father’s work where the North Carolina side of the mountains was his design. I then marveled at the beauty of my Father in Heaven’s work and knew I was blessed by both.
Traveling down the mountain, I got an intense desire to wade in the water that was not beside the road. I remembered a side road that my father had taken me down to play in the water when I was small. I drove there, and as I got out of my car, I felt a deep peace flood me. I knew God knew my deep hurts, and He knew my many flaws. I noticed on the side of the creek were many river rocks that were worn smooth by the moving water and bits of sand made from other rocks. They were dull and dry. I stepped into the water, and it was the cold of melted winter snows.
As I walked out into the deep my jeans had a watermark up two inches above the water. My jeans were wicking up the water. I noticed the river rocks in the bottom of the river that gleamed like polished jewels while those on the bank and out of the water did not. I picked one of those rocks up. As it dried, it became dull. It hit me like a jolt of lightening that we are like river rocks. When we are not within the river of living water that God gave to each of us, we are dull and do not gleam like jewels. But it wasn’t over….
I began to feel the tiny pings of sand hitting my ankles. I looked down to see if it was tiny fish, but it wasn’t. It was tiny bits of sand, and I realized that like those rocks that gleam in the living river that they are made smooth by life. We can either become more broken from life or we can let God smooth it over for us, and there was my answer to my prayers that weekend. I was being smoothed. I began to dance and splash in the water, and here I was over forty and dancing in the living water and feeling the light of God cover me, and never did I have a more joyous moment. I shouted out praises to God and thanked Him for the gift of understanding. No one saw me for if they had I think they would have called to have me taken away. They would not have felt the joy I was being given.
The next few years were filled with difficulty but each time I felt like I was breaking I remembered that I was a river rock resting in the living water, and continued facing life as it came to me. In time I apologized to the person I hurt. I regret that deeply.
I had forgotten the one truth of my life. When I accepted Jesus, I had been an atheist. God called me anyway, and changed me from the deeply angry and filled with rage and hate person that I was. Just like a river rock, God brought life to me that changed me. I worked with those children not just because they needed me, but I needed all those wounded people to help me face the dark pains others gave to me when I was a child.
When we allow ourselves to praise God and thank God with all our being, we will be changed and blessed. God will rejoice over us with song. Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
I wrote this poem later, and it has been revised several times…
Simple Truth
The water was cold.
Held in my hand,
It was clear and shining.
My toes curled in the sand.
Remembering when they were small,
They loved the feel of cold water and sand.
The edge of my jeans
Touched the water’s edge.
They turned darker as the cold clearness
Rose up my legs beyond the watermark.
I walked out into the water.
The sand turned to stones.
Ordinary river rocks
Smooth from the wearing
Of water moving sand.
In the water,
The stones shined as polished gems.
Lifted into the air,
They dried; they faded; they became pale.
Standing there in the cold mountain river,
I saw that we are like ordinary river rocks.
Life moves against us;
Our edges become smooth.
The water living surges sand over the stones;
The stones are still only river rocks.
In the water, the creator of change,
They shine like polished gems.
There in the water living,
I saw when I allowed it to flow
Over me, around me, into me
I went from ordinary to something shining.
In my hand, I held a river rock;
In my heart, I held wonder-
Of water moving sand,
And stones worn smooth.
Mary Elizabeth Todd
April 3, 1996, Revised December 30, 2007, April, 2012
When I was in that creek praising God, I know God was singing over me with joy. I want that for each of us to experience.
Today’s Question:
How did you begin this day?
Ever in Christ’s love,
Mary Elizabeth Todd
March 27, 2024 & September 4, 2024
Ruhamah United Methodist Church Bible Verses 