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Adoration is a deep love or respect for someone. It can also mean to worship or venerate someone. Synonyms are devotion, care, fondness, warmth, affection, glorify, praise, revere, exalt, extol, esteem, pay tribute to, magnify are just some of the synonyms. The transliteration of the Hebrew word is barak, a verb that means to kneel, by implication to bless God as an act of adoration. It is translated in English in the KJV 302 times as bless, 5 times as salute, 2 times each as blessed, praised, kneel down and 1 time each as kneel and make to kneel.

Adoration flows from the heart. We bless God when we kneel our hearts to Him in adoration of who He is. We bend of our will in adoration. It is a physical and verbal declaration unto God that puts us in a vulnerable position. Blessing and kneeling brings us down lower, surrendering in recognition of who He is, THE KING. When we kneel, we don’t see God eye to eye. To look upon His face, we must look upward, not beside us as if looking for our equal, and not within ourselves as if we can depend on ourselves. When we look to Him, we acknowledge that He is in control and we are reliant upon on Him. 

In 1 Chronicles 29:10-20, David blessed the LORD in the sight of the people and declared, blessed are You O LORD, forever and ever. He adored, or magnified the LORD and from the abundance of his heart, his mouth spoke. It is necessary for us to kneel our hearts to God. As the Scripture says, from our hearts flow the issues of life (Prov. 4:23). We must continuously evaluate our hearts. To draw near and bless Him we must have hearts that fear (revere) Him and that always keep his commandments. In Deuteronomy 5:29 the LORD says, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever! If He has our hearts, we will kneel and bless Him in adoration.

Psalm 95:6- Come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

  • Let us recognize Him for who He is. He is our Maker. We did not create ourselves.

Nehemiah 9:5- The Levites tell the people: Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever!

  • Call to worship the LORD for who He is. The Levites bless His name, exalt it above all blessing and praise. “You alone are LORD”. They then proceed to list everything the LORD has done for Israel, from the very beginning to the present day as well as confess the history of their disobedience. A renewal of covenant.
  • We should do the same, recall where He has brought us from and bless Him for His power and might.

Psalm 16:7- I will bless the LORD who has counseled me.

  • He is our Counselor, He leads us.

Psalm 34:1- I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

When we tell Him how awesome He is, we simultaneously remind ourselves of how powerful, mighty, and awesome He is which refreshes us, increases, or in some cases renews our faith.