Filled With Awe

" God dwells in His creation and is everywhere, indivisibly present in all His works. He is transcendent above all His works even while He is immanent within them."
A.W. Tozer


One of the biggest dangers (to our faith) of living in this technological age is that we begin to lose our awe for God and the things of God. We are constantly being bombarded by the demand of our devices, while every marketing firm tries to impress us with their latest and greatest. Because of this incessant competition for our time and attention, we begin to become desensitized due to overstimulation. This can even have a physiological response of reduced sensitivity to levels of various hormones and neurotransmitters in our brain.

The more stimulation we experience, the more we begin to filter out the "non-essential" things.
The ultimate effect is apathy, which is the antithesis of awe. Apathy means that we begin to experience a "lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern". Therefore, it takes something pretty magnificent to pique our attention. Stilling our hearts and minds to truly be quiet before God can become quite a feat when we live our lives on the adrenaline rush our society is consistently doling out to us.

Over and over, God's Word tells us that knowledge and wisdom don't even begin in our lives until we are standing in awe of God. In this age of information overload, it is easy to become deceived into believing the garbage that is constantly being thrown at us rather than becoming grounded in Biblical truths. Proverbs tells us, " The fear [awe] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ( Proverbs 9:10).

When we are not in awe of God, it is easy to become enraptured by the world. John Piper says,
" If you don't see the greatness of God then all the things that money can buy become very exciting.
If you can't see the sun you will be impressed with a street light. If you've never felt thunder and lightening, you'll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God, you'll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures."

Another hindrance to standing in awe of God can be our circumstances, or the sometimes brutal battering ram of life. Let's face it- there are times in our lives that are awful, just as there are times that are truly awesome. The irony of this is that the root word for both 'awful' and 'awesome' is awe. The definition of awe is " wonder, amazement, astonishment, lost for words, open-mouthed". Whether our circumstances are good or bad, we cannot allow them to rob us of standing in awe of God. He has apportioned us the grace to always stand in awe, and He will always eventually turn them into joy. Psalm 30:11 echoes this sentiment by saying, " You did it [God] : you changed wild lament into a whirling dance"! Dancing shoes do not remain idle forever!

Please understand. I am not suggesting that we plaster a smile on our face and fake it until we make it. Not at all. Our suffering can and should lead us to a deeper communion with God. Honest doubts and disappointments can propel us to a new place of trust and joy. Authenticity is required.

Job penned this precept. Even when his world was rocked and his life was shattered, he allowed God to bring awe to him in the midst of his circumstances. He said, " He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; He suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading His clouds over it. He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness... And these are but the outer fringe of His works; how faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?" ( Job 26: 7-10; 14).

There is so much for which to be in awe of God, both in who He is and in what He does. And yet, we often fall short because we don't really take the time to know Him or have the vantage from a God's eye view. Both of these require effort, faith, and pressing in, and yet will never totally be accomplished in entirety. John Wesley wrote, " Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God."

Therefore, we perish for a lack of knowledge and we are robbed from the joy and completeness that God has designed for us. Expectations and entitlement steal our affections and we miss out on the "fullness of life" that Christ died for us to have. John Milton wrote, " Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world."

Without awe for God, happiness eludes us. Albert Einstein said, " He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." The Bible tells us that " splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His place." ( 1 Chronicles 16:27). In other words, our strength and joy are found in our awe of God.

Everything that is good and right is found in God and all good gifts come from Him. He is Creator of all and above all that is created. The powers of God are infinite and His personality attributes are pure and holy. Some of His attributes include: aseity, faithfulness, goodness, graciousness, holiness, immanence, immutability, incomprehensibility, infinite, just, loving, merciful, mysterious, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, oneness, providencial, righteousness, sovereign, transcendent, triune, and veracious. In other words, He is glorious and majestic and filled with splendor! There is none who can compare with Him!

In addition to all these attributes, God is incomparably wise and knowing. In the doxology of Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes, " Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! ' Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?' For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen."

Even during turbulent times, we still can have peace knowing that God is sovereign and He has had a plan since before He even created us. No matter how much shaking occurs in the earth, we can look to our future with security. We are told that "since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." Hebrews 12:28).

God has equipped every generation according to their needs. Even during the grieving process for Jesus' followers, God met them in their deepest need. After Jesus' death and resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples and followers. We are told that after that " everyone was filled with awe..." ( Acts 2: 43). They could visibly see God moving in their midst and they were astonished and filled with wonder. Their expectation, hope and faith were intertwined solely in God.

Our salvation alone is reason enough for us to stand in awe... And yet, God has given us so much more. His Word teaches and instructs us, as the Holy Spirit leads and guides us. We live during the time of the dispensation of grace and under the new and better covenant. We are abundantly blessed!

We receive additional blessings and benefits from God when we stand in awe of Him and keep His Word. In the Old Testament, God promises: His pleasure, care, attention, protection, help, blessings, love, mercy, riches, honor, satisfaction, health, and life. In the New Testament, the benefits are even greater. We are promised all the Old Testament benefits, plus: eternal life, the Holy Spirit, sonship, an identification with the Risen Christ, and hope for His return.

All else in this world is fleeting... When Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, he stated that all man does is vanity- birth and death, planting and harvest, killing and healing, building and tearing down, riches and poverty, getting and losing, love and hate, and war and peace. He concluded by stating, " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear [ stand in awe of] God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." ( Ecclesiastes 12:13). May God help us to all be filled with awe and may we demonstrate it through obedience to the full counsel of His Word!



" Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him."
( Psalm 33:8)