Although I have no babies waking me anymore, most nights around 3am, my eyes pop open.  It’s quite frustrating because I really want to feel refreshed in the morning after a wonderful undisturbed night of sleep.  But sleep is often  harder to come by these days…. and so I’m up thinking, walking around, drinking some water…and praying.  Actually, for some reason, I’m able to pray better at 3am. I’ve talked to others….especially other Moms who also are awake at this time.  Does the Lord awaken us all so that we will talk to him?

One night as I was praying, I was particularly worried.  Worried about everything.  My family, my children, my unsaved friends and relatives, my health, my husbands health, my siblings, our country and where it’s headed.  I could go on and on. All of my worries about the future seemed amplified as well…things seem much worse at 3 am; don’t they?  In the quiet, with only the hum of our ceiling fan, I heard from the Lord.  Well, I think it was Him. It was not an audible voice I heard…but a still small voice in my heart that said…”It’s not all about you.”   It was as if I got a glimpse of His glory…and I worshiped him and thought about his awesomeness.  I can’t really explain it, but for those few minutes I understood.  It’s not that we shouldn’t pray about things…we should.  But really this life is not about us.  It’s about HIM.  We are here to glorify Him. I found this magazine clipping that has been tucked in my Bible for years.  I thought it was so profound…and so beautiful as it describes what Pure Adoration means.

….the highest adoration is not occupied with the re-collection of favors received and mercies extended, though they do help one be aware of the true nature of God.  There is still, in all such recollection, a remnant of that self-centeredness which it should be the purpose of prayer to escape. In it, we are still thinking of God in terms of something done to “me” and for “me.”  We never really adore Him, until we arrive at the moment when we worship Him for what He is in Himself, apart from any consideration of the impact of His Divine Selfhood upon our desires and our welfare.  Then we love Him for Himself alone.  Then we adore Him, regardless of whether any personal benefit is in anticipation or not.  Then it is not what He has done for us or what we expect Him to do for us but what He has been from eternity before we existed, and what He is now even if we were not here to need Him, and what He will be forever whether that “forever” includes us or not-it is that which captivates us and evokes from us the selfless offering of self in worship.  That is pure adoration.  Nothing less is worthy of the name.

~From An Autobiography of Prayer by Albert E. Day