“Come let us adore him,” says the popular holiday song “Adestes Fideles” (O Come, All Ye Faithful). The wise men came to adore the new king. But what exactly is it to adore? It’s much more than singing beautiful songs.

Many songs encourage us to adore God. We sometimes talk about a time of “worship and adoration” in our churches. But often, we use these two words as synonyms when they have different meanings. In French-speaking Bibles, we will find the word “adore” in the Old Testament as a translation of the Hebrew word “shâchâh”. In English, it’s translated as “worship”. This Hebrew word means to diminish oneself, to bow down, obey, and show reverence, as described in Psalm 95:6 (NIV). “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!”

In the New Testament, it is the Greek word “proskuneo” which is translated as well in English by “worship” (but in Latin languages by “adore”), which means to prostrate, even to kiss the floor where the venerated person has just passed. God has an entire heavenly army at his service singing praises to him. He likes to hear His children sing hymns, but what He wants is people who adore Him: worshipers. “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24 NIV).

God expects us to have our hearts prostrated before Him and that we put ourselves in a position of submission. We cannot say that we “adore God” and then do whatever comes into our heads, do whatever we want. To adore God is to obey Him, to follow His direction, it is to give oneself entirely to Him. It is all well and good to make our needs known to God (Philippians 4:6), but we must always take the time to finish our prayers as Jesus did: “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42b NIV).

Why adore Him? Why give Him authority over our lives, follow what He tells us to do, and marvel at His splendor? Because we were created for this! If we use a clock to brew a large soup, the clock will break because it was not created for that. We were created to worship God: it is when we are in a position of submission that we truly find happiness and satisfaction. If our world is broken, our families and sometimes even our churches, it is because we have stopped bowing down to God, we have regained control of our lives instead of abandoning ourselves to Him.

Jesus is not a baby in a manger. He is our Prince, the authority over our lives. As you hear the hymns that invite us to adore Christ, ask yourself if you are truly in adoration. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there are still areas of your life that are not under divine control. Remember to marvel, to prostrate yourself. You were created for this!