Come Let Us Adore HIM

“These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matthew 15:8 NIV

We have joined thousands to sing the words of the popular hymn for countless times. “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant… O come let us adore Him.” Some charismatic gatherings even use its chorus to lead worship. Some of us do secretly envy the shepherds who actually saw the baby Jesus, and returned with a message of joy that pierced the midnight air. Even through we could not join them in Bethlehem, we have been privileged to adore Master Jesus wherever we are and at anytime. This makes this hymn ever-fresh and meaningful for all Seasons. Adoration could mean different things to different people. But as God’s children, it simply means the experience of worship, honor, and homage to God. It is often expressed either in prostration (physically lowering one’s body), heartfelt worship, or as an attitude of high regard for Him. How best can we adore Him and why?

Our adoration of Him must surpass mere lips service. We cannot afford to limit it to movement of our mouths, it is important that our heart is deeply involved. It is not worship or adoration if our lips praise Him and our hearts are far from Him. Words cannot be a substitute for the heart in this subject matter. That part of us that no one sees is what is most important to God. Therefore, adoration is first and foremost an attitude of delightful worship, that our love for Christ lies at the core of our lives. This is the perfect interpretation of what our Lord said in our text. So, If we sing the right songs and recite proper prayers and even present at the right worship service and our heart is not involved, it is mere waste of time. It saddens the heart to discover that some Christians treat matters of worship and adoration with triviality. People in this category are becoming more day by day. Some associate worship with just Church attendance forgetting that being present at a bakery does not make one a bread.

Some also attend just for socializing. This set of people is more concerned with what they will gain from the people who is supposed to have gathered to adore Jesus.

To some, they are working for God they do not know. They serve in different areas of Church ministry but their focus is not to adore God. Some just want to have the sense of belonging, while some desire to use the service to get rid of boredom. Some are very far from act of worship, instead they are consumed with activities. They are ignorant about the fact that their service means nothing to God if their heart is far from Him at worship. Another danger about adoration is that some are also actors and pretenders. They seem to worship and adore God on Sundays and then turn to devil’s incarnates for the rest of the week. All these do not make God happy as we adore Him and they eventually amount to waste of time.

How then does God desire that we adore Him? Our Lord Jesus Christ makes this clear in John 4:24 NIV “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” This means that the time has come when worship is not a matter of location, but was to be done “in spirit and in truth.” Adoration is a personal issue and it remain a matter of personal desire and lifestyle. Adoring God in spirit means to be truthful about all we do at the before Him at the time of worship. We should never fail to approach Him the way we are. If He is precious to us, we must show it at the time of worship. Beloved, with today’s revelation on adoration or worship, we must appraise ourselves and be sure we are honest. If we have been distracted, we should use this occasion of Yuletide to make amends.

May the Prince of Peace and Lion of the tribe of Judah fill our lives with testimonies as we celebrate another Christmas and daily adore Him in Spirit and in truth until He comes again.