How to Adore God in Prayer

Prayer is not just about asking God for help or something. While the Bible teaches us that we should ask our Heavenly Father for the things we need and cast our anxieties and cares onto God, we need to remember that prayer is not ultimately about us, but about God. Prayer is an act of worship toward God; we pray to God because we worship Him. We worship God, knowing Who He is. Knowing who God is, we cannot help but worship Him, and one of the ways we do that is through prayers of adoration. Coming from the word “adore,” adoration is when we hold someone in high regard with great respect and reverence. Whenever we pray a prayer of adoration toward God, it is always filled with love, devotion, respect, and admiration for Him. It is where we worship, exalt, praise, revere, and glorify God for Who He is. The Bible teaches us that we worship God for Who He is and not for our circumstances. With that being said, it gives us a picture that we must first know Who God is for us to adore Him, and we can only know Who God is if we read the Scriptures.

Psalm 29:2

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 95:6

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

Psalm 132:7

We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.

What is an example of adoration?

In this section, we will go through several different examples of adoration toward God as in the Bible. These several examples focus on Who God is and adoring Him for Who He is. The first one is about God’s majesty and splendor. The Bible, especially in the Book of Psalms, teaches us a lot about the majesty and splendor of God—the One Who is seated on the throne over everything on earth; the King who is sovereign over all, even over the nations of this world. While seeing human royalty here on earth face to face is a breathtaking moment in one’s life, seeing their splendor and majesty is nothing compared to God’s. One good example is Psalm 93:1, which tells us about the LORD Who reigns and is robed in majesty. Taking a look at the universe alone, the order of the planets, the details of every cell, and every natural creation should point us to its magnificent designer, Who is God Almighty.

Psalm 21:5

His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

Psalm 93:1

The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Psalm 104:1

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

Psalm 145:5

I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

Another example that we have tells us of God’s holiness. If there is one attribute of God that we should always meditate on day and night, it’s the holiness of God. The Bible didn’t just describe God as “holy,” but as “holy, holy, holy.” We are worshipping a thrice-holy God Whose holiness is more than we can imagine. Knowing God’s holiness should change how we live our lives, including how we pray. Knowing God is holy, we should also be holy because sin or evil cannot dwell with God. That is why we need Christ. A person can become holy only through the blood of Christ and being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In our prayers, we adore God for His holiness and ascribe all glory to Him. The Bible uses the word “tremble” because we are to tremble before God, Who is a thrice-holy God; trembling before God is not necessarily a bad thing here. Whenever the Bible mentions trembling before God, it is a reverential kind of trembling because of how holy God is. The proper response to God is our regard for Him as holy through our prayers, worship, and the lives that we live. 

Psalm 96:9

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

Isaiah 6:3

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

1 Samuel 2:2

There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

1 Peter 1:15-16

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

The third example talks about God being merciful and gracious. If there are two aspects of God’s character that we should always adore, those would be His being merciful and gracious. We in Christ are also saved because of God’s grace alone. God turned our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh and opened our spiritually blinded eyes so that we may follow Christ. Even the fruit of the Spirit that we bear in our Christian lives and the good works we do are all products of God’s grace in us. Ultimately, we can never boast about anything, for everything in our lives as Christians is there through God’s grace and mercy. It is only fitting that we adore God for all the graces and mercies He has shown us. 

Lamentations 3:22-23

22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Psalm 103:8

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

Ephesians 2:1-9

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

How do you pray in adoration?

It is essential to know Who God is as you pray in adoration toward God. If you don’t know Who God is, then you don’t know what to adore toward God. Going back to the three examples that we had, which show us the majesty, splendor, holiness, grace, and mercy of God, you adore God as you meditate on those things. Here is an example of how you can pray in adoration using the examples we covered:

Heavenly Father, You are the God of mercy and grace Who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. All Your grace sustained me through my Christian walk and the mercy that You have given me supplied the things that I needed. I am in Christ because of Your grace and mercy in my life. You are also full of splendor and majesty. The earth is Your footstool. You govern everything in the universe down to the tiniest details. Therefore, I shall never be worried, because I know that You govern everything. You are a thrice-holy God with Whom sin can never dwell. None can compare with Your holiness alone. Help me to live a holy life, for You are holy. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

If you have observed the prayer sample given, your prayer is all about God. That is the essence of a prayer of adoration. It is all about God—worshipping Him for Who He is and ascribing the glory that He deserves. Where we come into the prayer is the part where we dwell on how we will live our lives in line with knowing Who God is. In the sample prayer, we prayed to God for help in living a holy life, knowing that He is holy. It is also essential that you are always reading the Scriptures. Praying in adoration to God is found a lot in the Scriptures. Therefore, if we want to always pray according to God’s will, then prayers of adoration based on Scripture should be our example.

1 John 5:14-15

14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

There is nothing wrong with asking God for the things we need or help for the difficulties we are going through. However, our prayers shouldn’t be filled with petitions alone. Whether or not things are going well in our lives, we should always pray prayers of adoration toward God because we worship Him for Who He is.