By Gabby D’Agostino

When was the last time your heart was positioned in true adoration before God? Where you felt the weight of kneeling before Him in awe and reverence, and sang out in worship solely because of who He is?

Some of my favorite passages of scripture are those that describe how God’s people knelt before His Holy Presence or fell on their faces before the Lord. Simply recognizing who He is was enough to physically shift their posture into complete awe. To see God rightly, we must lower ourselves in a posture of humility so we can look up and behold Him.

Three scriptures that take a unique perspective on an act of worship are Exodus 3:5, Joshua 5:15, and Acts 7:33. The same direction that states, “Remove your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground” is given to God’s servant leader Moses, the faithful leader Joshua who succeeded Moses, and restated in the New Testament to remember its significance. The removal of one’s sandals represents humility, recognition of reverence, and submission to Holiness. The presence of God is so Holy and consuming that man couldn’t stand in it alone without first falling in worship. Through Moses’ acts of reverential obedience, scripture shows us how he truly experienced the adoration of God.

The word adoration describes deep worship, praise, reverence, and love. Beholding the Father is an act of adoration. 

There’s nothing that draws you closer to being in genuine adoration of Jesus than when you rest and be still in His presence (Psalm 46:10). Since I’ve been at college, through the adjustments of life and having a completely different schedule than before, I’ve been able to pause and truly see the beauty of rest, the absence of striving, and simply learning to be with Him. The peace that fills your soul, the gentleness of His hand holding you and reaching toward your heart, all come from sitting in tension with the Holy Spirit. While the tension amidst stillness may seem uncomfortable, Psalm 27:4 reminds us this is the very cry of our heart.

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: 
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, 
To gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.
Psalm 27:4

In a song just released by Bethel Music (Hannah and Paul McClure), titled You Have My Heart, one of my favorite lines in the bridge says, “The cry of my heart, the ache of my soul is to pour out my love at the feet of You, Lord.” The very essence of who we are cries out in adoration and aches to break the alabaster jar at His feet. The gospel of Luke describes a woman who fell in awe at the feet of Jesus and gave Him her absolute everything, the highest deserving praise, with the most expensive perfume she had.

...A woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Luke 7:37-38

She broke the alabaster jar out of reverence, awe, honor, and love for Jesus. It is out of this natural overflow that she gave Him her utmost adoration. 

When you truly rest and allow the Lord to dwell with you, your response will naturally be adoration towards Him because you’ve fallen in love with who He is. Adoration for him should be the overflow of our souls. 

David, in the midst of hiding from King Saul in the cave, writing Psalm 57, calls out,

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. 
Psalm 57:8-9

In the midst of running and hiding for his life, David remembered the Lord and His steadfast love towards him. Since the very beginning of creation, our spirit and souls were designed to worship God and to adore Him. Because David knew deeply who God was, his soul cried out in adoration for Him. Even in the midst of our deepest trials, we can still find peaceful rest in who the Lord is by reminding ourselves of His sovereignty through the circumstances and remembering His everlasting love and care for us. When our focus becomes the adoration of Jesus, everything around us will slowly start to fall away in His presence.

The remarkable thing is, our adoration for the Lord could NEVER amount to His deep love for us. His love is immeasurable, unconditional, and relentless. Our adoration of Jesus is simply our response to who He is. 

My most awestruck moments of the Lord while sitting at His feet have often been during sacred, personal times of worship.  Not just the weekly worship sets at church or youth events, not just from the season and days of leading worship, but the intimate spaces where the Lord meets me in the secret place; my one-on-one response to Him in the shadows when no one else sees. It’s in the stillness of seeking Him where my eyes are unveiled to the beauty of who God is.

The unique attribute of God that allows us to seek His face anywhere is omnipresence: His presence being everywhere at the same time. We don’t have to “go somewhere” to earn or reach His presence far away, but exactly where we are, He meets us. Wherever we find ourselves, we get the opportunity to make an offering unto the Lord out of deep reverence, praise, and love for who He is. The Father is always abiding near us, and His gentle character cannot help but draw us close to His heart because His love runs so deep. In fact, through His word, we see that the Lord’s greatest desire is for the heart of The Creator and His creation to be tethered again. Through our adoration of Him, His heart draws near and adores us ever more. 

I just want my life to ever be entwined with You,
Tethered to Your heart.
I just want my soul to ever stand in awe of You
Tethered to Your heart.
Lyrics from Tethered by Phil Wickham