“Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever” (Revelation 7:12)
The word “awestruck” isn’t hard to define. It’s whenever you are struck with awe.
For example, seeing high wings bend big trees sideways can leave us awestruck. So can witnessing a new baby being born, or seeing young soldiers risking their lives so that future generations will know freedom and peace. So can taking in the panoramic view atop Mount Everest.
Awestruck.
The greatest thing which should leave us awestruck is the Lord God the Almighty. Just think about it. He spread out the stars. He filled the oceans. He designed DNA. He exercises wrath upon injustice. And he moves human history forward in love—despite the sin and rebellion in the world—toward a hope-saturated future.
In this fast-paced and distracted world, can we still see God in that way? Or has he become too common for us? Have we normalized him? Have we tried to water him down, or to tame him? Have we tried to put our understanding in a box in an attempt to avoid not only his sovereign power and wisdom, but his claim on our lives?
Jackie Hill Perry says: “God rules with power he doesn’t have to borrow.”* You and I need to borrow things, but not God. Perry’s statement is an invitation to re-consider the absolute bigness of our God.
If your version of God never makes you marvel, that may be an indication that you’ve tried to re-create him in your image (instead of the other way around). If your version of God never disagrees with you (or surprises you or challenges you), that too may be an indication that you’ve tried to trivialize the Maker of heaven and earth.
I don’t say these things to be negative. I say them so that we keep our eyes open, and so that we remain open to the possibilities that lie before us…
-If you can’t see your way out of a problem, that doesn’t mean a way out doesn’t exist.
-If you can’t envision how your future is going to get better, that doesn’t mean God is limited in the same way that you are.
-If you can’t figure out why you’re here on this earth, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a purpose.
If God can make heaven and earth, he can do things in your life that you can’t anticipate.
Be faithful. Be prayerful. Be open to awe. And prepare to be surprised.
“God rules with power he doesn’t have to borrow.”
Notes:
-Sermon: “For everything there is a season (Ecclesiastes 3:1-15)” Click here, or find it on ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.)
-*Jackie Hill Perry, Holier Than Thou: How God’s Holiness Helps Us Trust Him (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2021), 19.
-Bible quotes, ESV.
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