In Part 1 of the Can the Gospel Wreck Your Marriage? series I mentioned the acrostic “ACTS,” letters that stand for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. ACTS is a structured way of arranging your prayers that is easy to remember.
Let’s take a closer look at the first letter in the acrostic, “A” – Adoration. Adoration is giving God the praise and honor that He rightfully deserves. There are many different reasons why God deserves our adoration but what does God say about Himself?
The following are five things that God says about Himself that give us reason to praise Him.
1. He is the Creator
“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone” – Isaiah 44:24
God is the creator of our vast universe. Everything we have, including the very air that we breathe, comes from Him. He separated the heavens from the earth and put our world into motion.
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” – Colossians 1:16
God is worthy of our praise and adoration because He is our Creator and the Maker of all things.
2. He is Almighty
“I am God Almighty” – Genesis 17:1
The word for Almighty used in this verse is El Shaddai in the original Hebrew. Shaddai means “mighty” and “El” means God so together it is translated God Almighty. This name for God demonstrates His nature and character as the “Overpowerer,” the one who overpowers all our opposition. It also describes Him as the “All-sufficient One.” He has the power and provisions to meet all our needs.
God is worthy of our praise and adoration because He has absolute power and is the One who sustains us.
3. He is our Healer
“I, the Lord, am your healer.” – Exodus 15:26
Another name for God used in the Bible is Jehovah-Rapha which means the Lord who heals. While this does not mean that God will always heal us from every ailment, the power to heal is in His hand. He demonstrated His healing power when He healed Abimelech and his wife (Genesis 20:1-18). He also performed healing as Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew 14:14).
God is worthy of our praise because healing power is in His hands.
4. He is gracious
“when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.” – Exodus 22:27
Several times in Scripture God describes Himself as gracious. In Exodus 34:6 He declares Himself as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” His graciousness is bountiful, bestowing grace on all of us. Grace can be described using yet another acrostic that I learned as a child: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is God freely giving us that which we have not earned and do not deserve.
God is worthy of our praise and adoration because He is gracious.
Our sin causes us to be separated from God. There is nothing that we have done, or could ever do, to earn reconciliation with Him but God extends us grace. Which leads us to number 5…
5. He loves us and provides salvation
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6
One of the biggest reasons to praise God is that He loves us so much that He provided a way that we can be reconciled to Him.
Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned” and that is pretty evident by just looking around. There is not one of us that has not disobeyed our parents, broken a law, told a lie, or committed some type of sin.
But the good news is that “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
And He did not do this because we deserve it or earned it “but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
For this reason, He is worthy of our praise and adoration!
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” – Psalm 150:6
By the sheer nature of who God is and what He has done, He is deserving of our praise and adoration. He created everything we experience with our senses. He provides us with what we need. He has the power to heal all our ailments and does so at His discretion. He is a gracious God, demonstrated by His outpouring of love through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing this we have every reason to cry out to Him with gratitude and praise!
Here are links to the next articles in this series: “C” – Confession and “T” – Thanksgiving and “S” – Supplication.
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