Living In Awe Of God

Devotional

I will never forget the evening I met Billy Graham.

I was part of a group chosen to invite him to lead an outreach event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He was preaching on a college campus in California at the time so our group met with him in a locker room beneath the stadium.

Before our meeting, I put more thought than usual into what I would wear and what I would say. I thoroughly prepared for our conversation and wanted to be very intentional with everything I said and did.

Thankfully, Dr. Graham could not have been more gracious and humble with our group. And even though I came with a well-prepared plan to present to him, I found myself in awe just to be in his presence. Yet Billy ultimately was just a man, albeit an amazing man of God.

But if I experienced this level of awe for Billy Graham, how much more awe should I be experiencing for God himself?

So as we continue our weeklong focus on humility, consider what these stories from Scripture have in common:

- When “the Lᴏʀᴅ appeared to Abram” (Genesis 17:1), “Abram fell on his face” (v. 3).

- When Moses met God at the burning bush, Moses “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:6).

- When Jeremiah heard God’s call to serve as his prophet, he responded, “Ah, Lord Gᴏᴅ! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth” (Jeremiah 1:6).

- When Jesus demonstrated his omnipotence on the Sea of Galilee, Peter “fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5:8).

- When John met the risen Christ on the prison island of Patmos, he testified: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

In our famous text from Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne” (v. 1). In light of God’s holiness, he recognized and admitted his own sinfulness. Then a seraphim, which is a heavenly being, took a burning coal from the altar, touched Isaiah’s mouth, and cleansed his sin (vv. 2–7). In response to such grace, Isaiah accepted God’s call (v. 8) and became one of the greatest prophets in human history.

Thankfully, God is not asking us to use burning coals. But to experience true and transforming humility, we must see God as he is before we can see ourselves as we truly are. As long as you are judging or comparing yourself to other people, you will always be able to find someone to whom you feel superior. And if you are judging yourself by yourself, you will always be tempted to magnify your successes while excusing your failures.

But when we see God in his holiness, we cannot help but respond with reverence and humility. And the more we experience his divine transcendence, the more we see our need for personal transformation.

Let us spend time today in awe of who God is as we enter a time of guided prayer.

today’s devotional is written by Jim Denison