January 22 Reverence with Awe

Exodus 3:5  "Do not come any closer," God said.  "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

The providence of God: that is a big thing to me right now - I have seen it manifested so clearly recently - where God brought seemingly ordinary events together to extraordinary ends.  In the providence of God, as I was praying for someone last night, that person called - and the fact that I was praying for them made a difference in what happened.

In relationship to today's meditation, and the providence of God, I talked recently with someone about their visit to a Catholic church, and this person talked about how the people there seemed to really be aware of God, be reverent, be moved by the communion service.

Then , today I read this passage, about reverence with awe, and it struck me how "for granted" we take God.  I have thought for a long time that we have too much stuff here in this country because we don't need God, or we don't think we do.  In some sense, we think we are gods, the master of our own destiny - we can make it happen.

I wonder if the stack of Bibles most Christian families have, the ease with which we can go to church, the number of Christian related books, magazines or other programming we have, has made us see God as little more than an extra chair to pull out when we need it - for company...for an emergency.

I encouraged prospective RAs this week, in a class I am teaching, to consider loving God back, to think about what it would look like if we made our daily and life choices in response, as a response, to his love.  When I was teaching that the Lord brought to my mind a line from an old hymn or chorus: "How can I do less than give him my best?"

Oh there's more to the song, but those few words spoke to me about this topic - reverence with awe.  And I guess I will take just a second to say how frustrated I have become with how casually we use the word awesome....  the cookies were awesome, the movie was awesome...was it really?  or was it just pretty good?

OK back to the topic at hand: reverence with God - have we become so used to God that he is no longer awesome to us.  We take him for granted like a sweater we pull out of our closet, one among many to keep us warm.  Or, do we cultivate a sense of awe that God would love me, amazed that he would so move in my life that I would hear and believe the gospel?

Think how far back in Joseph's life God began to move to have him in the right place at the right time.  How far back in your life did God have to move so that you would hear and have opportunity to respond to the gospel?  Think about the reality that God, who is the eternal sovereign One, loves you.  Then consider how you could show him you get it, you understand, in some small measure, and you want to live out a response to that awareness....another thought that could fill a whole day - maybe should fill a whole life.