Adoration & Devotion
I’m writing about love in February. And yes, I am fully aware of the cliché. Sue me.
There was a time where I totally completely forgot that adoration is a crucial part of love. That’s right, I forgot. For so long, I was hyper-fixated on the devotion aspect of love. Commitment, dedication, service, sacrifice, faithfulness. This narrowed perspective started in a relationship I was struggling to carry but it soon seeped into my spiritual life undetected. I felt as long as I was as obedient, persistent, firm, and sacrificial, I was doing all I could to love God. Who cares how I feel? All that matters is what I do and the principles I stand for. Legalism breeds and multiplies in this environment.
But at other times in my faith, I swung to the other side of the pendulum. I cherished and admired and adored Jesus with everything in me. My heart would be quick to jump and swell with every worship song, sermon, or interaction with a brother or sister in Christ. It was really easy to send me into a spiritual “high” but soon after came crashing spiritual “lows”. My faith was at the mercy of my circumstances and my emotions. It reminds me of Peter in Matthew 14. The rush of stepping out of the boat and onto the water but moments later, beginning to sink as his circumstances got the best of him.
I have found that we can gravitate towards one end of the devotion/adoration spectrum. For some it changes with the season, and with others one is always more consistent than the other. If you’re not sure which one you favor, I encourage you to ask yourself a few questions. How do I define love? What characteristics come to mind first when I think of love? How do I naturally express my love for God? Journal out your answers. You will probably spot a pattern.
So what do we do when we’ve identified which side we’re more prone to? We strive to foster the other side of love in our daily lives. Hear me carefully, I am not saying that if you default to devotion that you should neglect devotion in pursuit of adoration or vice versa. This is a both/and situation. In fact, I bet you’ll find that an increase of one will actually fuel the other! Whole-hearted, persistent love for the Lord multiplies and amplifies into a worshipful crescendo over time.
If you find yourself leaning towards a devotion-focused love, here’s a few ways to foster affection for the Lord:
Pray, pray, pray. Pray consistently with depth and honesty. Ask the Spirit to mold your desires and affections to match His. Ultimately, He is the one who brings joy and wonder and tenderness to our hearts. It is not in our own power. However, we can do things to draw our attention to the work He is doing.
Spend some time in reflection. What has God done in your life? How has He moved, provided, brought comfort in troubling times? Revisit moments where you experienced the love of God in real time and thank Him for that.
Meditate on the Psalms. Echo the prayers of the psalmist and dwell on how he describes God.
For those who default to the adoration side of love, here’s a few ways to build devotion into your life.
Build spiritual rhythms, habits, rituals into your daily life. Commit to prayer and reading scripture once a day. If you have a hard time staying consistent, ask a friend to hold you accountable.
Memorize scripture that combats doubts or temptations that may cause your emotions/desires to waver. Practice meditating on those verses, especially when you don’t want to.
Find a way to serve in the church. God has given you gifts to help build and nourish the body of Christ. Using those gifts is an act of worship.
Read through 1 John. Fair warning: it’s pretty convicting. Lean into how it challenges you.
Take heart in this less than thrilling truth: we will never love God perfectly. Even the most balanced, passionate, steadfast follower of Christ lives in the shadow of God’s perfect love for us. We see devotion and adoration on full, mind-melting display in God’s love.
We see His affection and tenderness in how He’s created us. First with Adam, molded by hand in His own image from the earth He formed, and breathed His own breath into his lungs (Genesis 2:7). And He pieced us together in our mothers’ womb (Psalm 139:13-14). Every hair accounted for, every moment of our lives prepared beforehand.
We see His devotion in His providence and forgiveness and how he sanctifies us. He provides every blessing in our lives, He is faithful to forgive when we sin against Him, and every day He shapes us to look more like Him and His character. (1 John 1:9)
And every aspect of His love intersects in one place: the cross. Even though the Father would be just to pour out His wrath on us for our sins, He loved us enough to sacrifice His own Son. And with Jesus’ resurrection, we get life in Christ. Because of the cross, we get to have an intimate relationship with the original and fullest source of love.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
- 1 John 4:16