Recapturing the Awe

Recapturing the Awe

How is your prayer life? I just read a great article found in the September/October issue of the Discipleship Journal titled Return to Awe and written by Tim Muehlhoff. The subtitle is “Invigorate your prayers with a focus on God’s majesty. While attending a prayer conference he heard the speaker say, “I’m going to ask God to show up today” as they were invited to join the speaker in prayer, the writer caught himself wishing that his latte was a little warmer and noticing that a girl was already starting to go to sleep. The writer kept wondering about the speaker’s bold request for God to “show up.” He wondered if God ever did show up.

As I read the opening of the article, I asked myself, “Did the casual approach of many of those attending this prayer seminar prevent God from showing up in their lives or perhaps even the whole seminar?” If we really don’t expect God to show up, how can we expect Him to show up? If we don’t respect the Glorious Presence of God enough to prepare ourselves for this awesome encounter, is it any wonder that we don’t experience the “Wonder and Awe” of His Presence? When God met with the Israelites in the wilderness, He told Moses to instruct the people to wash themselves (baptize or immerse themselves in cleansing water-preferably running water), put on clean clothing and prepare to meet with God. We are so familiar with God, our Father, Creator, Maker, Savior, and Friend that we forget that He is the Glorious, Awesome God, Ruler of all creation.

Have we been too long at ease to experience the awe? The writer of this article concludes that it is possible to recapture the awe. First you must prepare yourself. If you were going to get to meet with some important person like the President or the Queen, you would prepare yourself. Why would you not prepare yourself to meet with God? Yet think back to last Sunday or the last time you had your devotions. Did you really expect to meet with God? How did you prepare your mind, heart and body for this glorious meeting? I think of married people. When we were dating our spouses before marriage, we used to prepare ourselves. We would feel a certain thrill of being in their presence. Now that we are married and committed we are familiar with our spouse and can take them for granted. My husband and I try to practice at least once a day the thrill of each others presence. We take the time to look at each other, really look to see each other. Then we say, “I love you.” I try to look at Don at different times of the day and remind myself of all he does for me and how much I love him. It helps me keep the awe of romance alive.

If you want to recapture the awe of God, stop before you pray and just look at Him through the eyes of your spirit. Think of who He is and then tell Him you love him.

Linger in that Awesome Presence for a while and enjoy the blessing of just being with God.

Now that is a WOW experience! He is the Wonder of Wonders. He is the Wonderful Omnipresent Word and He is in love with you!

The photo is a watercolor version of a photo by Lorna Mac Glashan.