Stand in awe of God

Stand in awe of God

Did that feel like a lot? I suspect it did, it took all month to get through it! And I have not covered everything.

There is so much about God that we can stand in awe of.

Our God is worthy of our awe – he is truly awesome.

And because we know he is awesome, our awesome God, we will want to worship him with honour, glory and praise.

Let’s keep in our minds a very big picture of God.

• Our God who is in heaven while we are on earth, our God who we can stand in awe of.

• Our God who loved us so much that he created us & saved us and who wants us to call him Father.

We have a truly awesome God. Stand in awe.

Stand in awe of God – he is our Father

He is our Father

God is all of these things – creator, redeemer, powerful, loving, judge – yet he is also personally involved in our lives. He is our heavenly father who loves us and cares for us. He knows you

• he knows your personality – he made you that way
• he knows your body – he created it
• he knows your struggles – he helps you cope with them

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, (2 Cor 1:3)

To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. (Phil 4:20)

Stand in awe of God – he is trustworthy

He is trustworthy

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple. (Psalm 19:7b)

"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." (Isisah 25:9)

Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:4)

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)

Stand in awe of God – he is faithful

He is faithful

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. (Deut 7:9)

For the word of the LORD is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does. (Ps 33:4)

I will sing of the LORD's great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself. (Ps 89:1-2)

... let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:22-23)

Stand in awe of God – he is merciful

He is merciful

For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. (Deut 4:31)

Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath. (Ps 78:38)

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him (Dan 9:9)

Stand in awe of God – he is kind

He is kind

“… but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,"
says the LORD your Redeemer. (Is 54:8)

You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit. (Job 10:12)

“…let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24)

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

Stand in awe of God – he is loving

He is loving

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love. (Ps 103:8)

Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:26)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Eph 2:4-5)

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 9-10)

Stand in awe of God – he is the judge

He is the judge

Not only is God just, but He is also the judge.

The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice. (Ps 9:7-8)

And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. (Ps 50:6)

Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity. (Ps 96:10)

For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
it is he who will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. (James 4:12)

Stand in awe of God – he is just

He is just

Moses says:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. (Deut 10:17)

Tha Psalmist writes:

For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
upright men will see his face. (Psalm 11:7)

The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love. (Ps 33:5)

Stand in awe of God – he is compassionate

He is compassionate

The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion. (Psalm 116:5)

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love. (Ps 103:8)

The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made. (Ps 145:9)

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaish 30:18)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, (2 Cor 1:3)

Stand in awe of God – he knows everything

He knows everything

Paul marvels at the depths of God’s wisdom & knowledge:

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?" (Rom 11:33-34)

And John writes:

For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:20b)

Stand in awe of God – he is powerful

He is powerful

Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17)

O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. (Jeremiah 32:18b-19a)

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit. (Psalm 147:5)

Stand in awe of God – he is sovereign

He is sovereign

See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and his arm rules for him. (Isisah 40:10)

God is referred to as Sovereign Lord almost 300 times in the bible.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19)

God is the ruler of all things, he is the King of all and the ruler of all. Paul writes to Timothy about:

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim 6:15)

Stand in awe of God – the saviour

He is the saviour

God has saved us, he has saved us from death, by our salvation through Jesus’ death.

Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death. (Psalm 68:20)

Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22)

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me. (Psalm 13:5-6)

Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God. (Ps 98:1-3)

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)

Stand in awe of God – the redeemer

He is the redeemer

God has redeemed us – he has called us to him.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine. (Is 43:1)

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins. (Ps 130:7-8)

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. (Job 19:25)

They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer. (Ps 78:35)

Stand in awe of God – the sustainer

He is the sustainer

The sun rises and sets each day because God sustains it. The rain falls on crops and the sun shines because God sustains his earth.

You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
10 You drench its furrows
and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers
and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the desert overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing. (Ps 65:9-13)

Not only can we stand in awe of God for creating everything, we also stand in awe because he sustains his creation daily.

God sustains our lives:

I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. (Ps 3:5)

Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

Jesus sustains all things:

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Heb 1:3)

Stand in awe of God – the creator

He is the creator

God made all things, the entire universe. Every star, every planet, every plant, every seed, every insect, animal and bird – God made it.

He made all people – every skin colour, every shape, every size, every nationality – God made it

He made us - every bone, every muscle, every tendon, every organ, and every hair – God made it.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:28)

(This is what the LORD says)…
It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts. (Isaiah 40:12)

You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being. (Rev 4:11)

Stand in awe of God

Recently I had cause to think a bit more about God. I was looking at Ecclesiastes 5 and the instructions on how we are to come before God when we worship him. The only reason that we are to come before God is given in v 2b:

God is in heaven
and you are on earth

God is the one in control, he sits on the throne of heaven. We are on his earth, living the life he alone gave us.

There is such a vast difference between who God is and who we are.

So much so, that the final instruction in the passage is simply “stand in awe of God” (v7b).

It’s easy to lose the awe of what it is to come before the living God. We take it for granted that Jesus has allowed us direct access to God by his death and resurrection. It is with great joy that we can freely approach God because of Christ, but sometimes in doing so we forget the magnitude of being able to come before God himself.

Join me for a couple of weeks as I stand in awe of God. I’m going to spend some time looking at who God is and how awesome he is, I won’t be doing much writing – just looking at what the bible has to say. Don’t expect any theological treatise. Instead just take some time to stand in awe of God.