• Synthesis  • Definition
Adoration is the quiet contemplation of God and His character that leads to a deeper love for Him and greater dedication to Him. Therefore, a rewarding adoration of God can only occur when you know the true nature and character of God as revealed in the Holy scriptures. Adoration is close to worship, but yet is distinct. Worship, generally speaking, involves expression—a declaration of appreciation—whereas adoration is the silent contemplation of God that takes place deep in the soul and is, in fact, beyond words. Adoration is beyond trying to understand God, but looking in love and longing on Him as revealed in Jesus.

Adoration of God means looking at God full in the face and that means contemplating Him, spending time with Him, adoring Him for whom He is, what he has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. Whom He is means His glory, His nature and character—His attributes.

Another major spiritual exercise is meditation on what God has written in the Bible. One of the tragedies of our day is that meditation is linked more to non-Christian systems of belief—eastern mysticism—than it is with biblical Christianity. There is a vast difference between transcendental meditation and biblical meditation. Meditation is deep, focused thinking.

Christian meditation means spending time reading and thinking about what you have read. It means asking yourself how you should change so you can be living the way God wants. Knowing and meditating on God’s word are the first steps towards applying it to your everyday life. If you want to follow God more closely, you must know what he says. Those seeking to live under God’s blessing meditate on God’s word in order to know God by revelation and to shape their thinking, attitudes and actions. They read the scripture, ponder on the words and compare them with other scriptures. Through meditation believers commune with God and are thereby renewed spiritually. Meditation involves taking a text, putting it like a sweet on your tongue and holding it there until you have sucked every precious drop of spiritual liquid from it. The added exercise of meditation acts like bellows on a little flame and transforms it into a blazing fire.

(2) Purpose of Adoring contemplation of God

Key Words
Adoration—Love for Jesus—Knowledge of God—Life in the Spirit
Key Verses: “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens,” (Ps 123:1). “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!” (Zech 2:13).
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor 3:18)
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