AWE

Awe-inspiring. When was the last time you used the word ‘awesome?’ You saw something out of the ordinary, you heard someone share a remarkable coincidence, you noticed how carefully your child/grandchild created true work of art. But was it ‘awe-some?’ The Psalmist writes, “For the sovereign Lord is awe-inspiring; he is the great king who rules the whole earth!” (Psalm 47:2, NET)

I fear we have lost our sense of the word ‘awesome.’ We use it casually. We use it carelessly. Pau David Tripp published a book titled, Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, or Do. He suggests that we are wired for an awe for God. writing, “No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security it seeks.”[1]

How do we reclaim the word ‘awe?’ The Psalmist gives us some assistance:

– reflect on why you are where you are (Psalm 47:3-4);

– remember who God is – “He’s Lord over earth, so sing your best songs to God.” (Psalm 47:7, The Message);

– rejoice in His presence as the One who protects us (Psalm 47:8-9).

Our ability to be ‘awed’ may be skewed by our own self-importance. John Piper writes,

If I stand before the love of God and do not feel a healthy, satisfying, freeing joy without turning that love into an echo of my self-esteem, then I am like a man who stands before the Grand Canyon and feels no satisfying wonder until he translates the canyon into a case for his own significance. That is not the presence of health, but bondage to self.[2]

In our efforts to promote the causes in which we believe, and to puff up the self-image that is so easily bruised, have we lost our ability to be awed by the magnificence and grandeur of God?

[1] Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, or Do (Wheaton, ILL.: Crossway Books, 2015), Kindle Edition, 12.

[2] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-do-we-visit-the-grand-canyon, accessed on 2/24/20.