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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Reverently Adore God, Part 2

Adoration 1.3 | ESV

I must acknowledge his Being to be unquestionable and past dispute.

The heavens declare your glory, O God, and the sky above proclaims your handiwork. Psalm 19:1(ESV) Your eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made, Romans 1:19-20(ESV) so that they are fools without excuse who say, “There is no God.” Psalm 14:1(ESV) For surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth, Psalm 58:11(ESV) and in heaven too.

I therefore draw near to you believing that you exist and that you powerfully and bountifully reward those who diligently seek you. Hebrews 11:6(ESV)

Yet I must own his nature to be incomprehensible.

I cannot find out the deep things of God; I cannot find out the limit of the Almighty. Job 11:7(ESV)

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3(ESV)

Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all his praise? Psalm 106:2(ESV)

And his perfections to be matchless and without compare.

Who is a God like you, O LORD, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11(ESV)

Who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD? Psalm 89:6(ESV) O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are with your faithfulness all around you? Psalm 89:8(ESV)

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. Psalm 86:8(ESV) For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Psalm 86:10(ESV)

No creature has an arm like God, or can thunder with a voice like his. Job 40:9(ESV)

And that he is infinitely above me and all other beings.

You are God and not man; you do not have eyes of flesh, nor do you see as man sees. Your days are not as the days of man, nor your years as a man’s years. Job 10:4-5(ESV)

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your thoughts higher than my thoughts and your ways than my ways. Isaiah 55:9(ESV)

All nations before you are like a drop from a bucket, or the dust on the scales; and you take up the coastlands like fine dust; Isaiah 40:15(ESV) they are as nothing, and are accounted by you as less than nothing and emptiness. Isaiah 40:17(ESV)

Categories
ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Reverently Adore God, Part 1

Adoration 1.2 | ESV

I must reverently adore God, as a Being transcendently bright and blessed, self-existent and self-sufficient, an infinite and eternal Spirit who has all perfections in himself, and give him the glory of his titles and attributes.

O LORD our God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, you cover yourself with light as with a garment; Psalm 104:1-2(ESV) and yet to us you make darkness your canopy, Psalm 18:11(ESV) for we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. Job 37:19(ESV)

This is the message which we have heard of you, and we set our seal to it that it is true: God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; 1 John 1:5(ESV) God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16(ESV)

You are the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change, and from whom proceeds every good and perfect gift. James 1:17(ESV)

You are the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.1 Timothy 6:15-16(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Address God with Reverence and Awe

Adoration 1.1 | ESV

Having thus engaged our hearts to approach God. Jeremiah 30:21(ESV)

We must solemnly address ourselves to that infinitely great and glorious Being with whom we have to do, as those who are possessed with a full belief of his presence and a holy awe and reverence of his Majesty, which we may do in such expressions as these:

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! Revelation 4:8(ESV)

O you whose name is the LORD, who alone are the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 83:18(ESV)

O God, you are our God, earnestly we seek you; Psalm 63:1(ESV) our God, and we will praise you; our fathers’ God, and we will exalt you. Exodus 15:2(ESV)

O you who are the true God, the living God, the one only living and true God, 1 Thessalonians 1:9(ESV) and the everlasting King! Jeremiah 10:10(ESV) The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deuteronomy 6:4(ESV)

And may we thus distinguish ourselves from the worshipers of false gods.

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, they are vanity and a lie, the work of human hands; Psalm 115:4(ESV) those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. Psalm 115:8(ESV) But the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name, Jeremiah 10:16(ESV) God over all, blessed forever. Romans 9:5(ESV)

Their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves, Deuteronomy 32:31(ESV) for he is the Rock of ages; the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock: Isaiah 26:4(ESV) His name endures forever, and his renown throughout all ages, Psalm 135:13(ESV) even when the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

Categories
ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Introduction to Adoration

Adoration 1.0 | ESV

Of the First Part of Prayer, which is Address to God, Adoration of Him, with Suitable Acknowledgements, Professions, and Preparatory Requests

My spirit being composed into a very reverent and serious frame, my thoughts gathered in, and all that is within me charged in the name of the great God carefully to attend the solemn and awful service that lies before me and to keep close to it, I must, with a fixed attention and application of mind and an active lively faith, set the Lord before me, see his eye upon me, and set myself in his special presence, presenting myself to him as a living sacrifice, which I desire may be holy and acceptable to God and a spiritual service; Romans 12:1(ESV)  and then bind this festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar, Psalm 118:27(ESV) in such thoughts as these:

Let me now lift up my heart, with my eyes and hands, to God in heaven. Lamentations 3:41(ESV)

Let me rouse myself to take hold of God, Isaiah 64:7(ESV) to seek his face, Psalm 27:8(ESV) and to ascribe to him the glory due his name. Psalm 29:2(ESV)

Unto you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Psalm 25:1(ESV)

Let me now with confidence enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for me through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. Hebrews 10:19-20(ESV)

Let me now attend to the Lord with undivided devotion, 1 Corinthians 7:35(ESV) and let not my heart be far from him when I draw near to him with my mouth and honor him with my lips. Isaiah 29:13(ESV)

Let me now worship God, who is spirit, in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. John 4:23-24(ESV)

[Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]