“When we cannot by searching find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink and adore the depths” (Matthew Arnold).

Sometimes, it’s good to enter into prayer not with praises or petitions but simply silence. Sometimes, we need to sit at the brink of all that God is and adore the bottomless depths that are beyond our understanding. We need to remember that God isn’t just a bigger, stronger, faster version of us. He’s totally other and completely holy.

Holy means set apart. It means not like everything else and definitely not like us. If God hadn’t chosen to reveal Himself to us through creation and ultimately through Jesus, we never could have known Him at all. That’s something to keep in mind when ever I’m tempted to feel oh so clever for my faith and for figuring God out.

To think that God is infinitely bigger than anything we can conceive of in our minds and yet He became an infant is staggering. To think that the same God who orders billions of stars and planets and galaxies and knows each and every one of their names yet is mindful of me is more than I can comprehend sometimes.

The ACTS model of prayer is always helpful. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. All those are important and necessary parts of prayer. But remember that it all starts with adoration.