What's the greatest activity we can spend time doing? Worshiping God! Worship is not repeating hasty, routine petitions or listening to mood-inducing music. Worship is the experience of being "lost in wonder, love, and praise," as Charles Wesley wrote. It's awe that inspires adoration.

My first sight of the Grand Canyon left me speechless. The friend who had driven me there appreciated my reaction and stood silent beside me. I gazed in awe at this magnificent spectacle and thought, This is a glimpse of God's majesty. But my awe, by itself, was not worship.

My reaction is different when I come face to face with Jesus in the Scriptures. Awe changes into adoration as I behold Him in all His beauty. What grips my soul? His unsullied purity: "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" (John 8:46). His unrivaled wisdom: "No man ever spoke like this Man!" (John 7:46). His unbounded pity: "When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion" (Matt. 9:36). And His overwhelming majesty: "He was transfigured before them" (Matt. 17:2).

As I see Jesus in the Gospels, my awe changes to adoration. I bow in worship and exclaim with Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).  — Vernon C. Grounds