Prayers of Adoration

Gracious Heavenly Father,

You made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.  From the structure of space and time down to the chemistry of our D.N.A, everything declares Your glory and shows Your power to bring things into being.  All things show Your marvelous imagination and joy in complexity and diversity.  Your work is magnificent and beautiful.

You made us in Your own image to copy in miniature the way You love and create but we rebelled.  We tried to kick You off the throne and install ourselves as supreme authority but we only succeeded in making ourselves useless for anything good.  We defiled ourselves.  Our best efforts and intentions now stink and we cannot make ourselves clean again.

You came to earth as one of us and saved us.  In Your Son Jesus You gave Your own perfect self to be tortured and executed by us.  You hung humiliated and naked for all to see and so bore the guilt that would have destroyed us.  You went through the judgment and death we earned and rose again to life.  You gave us this life.

Thank You Father!  Please fill us with Your Spirit so that we can worship You properly.  Manifest Yourself to us and magnify Your holy name.  Make us know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  Amen.

Thank You Father that You work all things together for good for Your children. Thank You for our troubles because You work them for good too. They are from your loving hand though they hurt. Please make us get the benefit of them. You know what You are doing; You know how to make a man; You know how to make a woman. Give us strength in Your Spirit to suffer joyfully and to place all our hopes and fears in Your most competent and faithful hands.

Father, we are not worthy to be Your children but You have taken all our sin and put it on Jesus. Evil spirits and evil men conspired to kill Him but You planned it all from the beginning. You crushed Him. You made Him suffer the most horrendous evil in all creation and turned it into the most glorious revelation of Your character. You are the God who hates evil and destroys it utterly. You are the God who takes that destruction upon Himself in love to save us from it. You do not spare Your own son but graciously give Him up for us all. Thank You Father. Amen.