Wonder and awe are regular themes throughout the Bible. A quick search for wonder and awe will reveal more than thirty verses. There are more than one hundred verses related to awe alone. Consider a few below:
Exodus 15:11– “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Psalm 33:8– “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!”
Hebrews 12:28– “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.”
Deuteronomy 10:17– “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.”
The Bible connects awe with the Lord and with those who experience the Lord. God is awesome and when you experience him, you become awe-struck or filled with awe. An experience with the Lord changes a person in a powerful way.
But, if you don’t want to take my word for it or even the Bible’s word for it, consider the following statement from Jonathan Haidt:
The emotion of awe is most often triggered when we face situations with two features: vastness (something overwhelms us and makes us feel small) and a need for accommodation (that is our experiences I not easily assimilated into our existing mental structures; we must “accommodate” the experience by changing those structures). Awe acts like a kind of reset button: it makes people forget themselves and their petty concerns. Awe opens people to new possibilities, values, and directions in life.
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind, 264
Those words come from Jonathan Haidt in his 2012 book, The Righteous Mind. Haidt is a moral psychologist and a best-selling author. He is also an atheist. Haidt does not believe in a God, but if he experienced God, Haidt knows it would change his life. Even from a secular perspective, Haidt knows that awe changes people.
Awe is a reset button. Do you find yourself stuck in a rut in life? Are you struggling? Have you sought the Lord? People who experience the Lord do not leave that experience the same way they entered it. When you experience the Lord, he changes you. When you discover unbounded love, forgiveness beyond your wildest dreams, and hope for all of eternity, your life changes.
Where can you find this God? Run to his word. Proverbs 1:7 uses fear in the place of awe, but it carries the same concept, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Psalm 119:161 says, “My heart stands in awe of your words.”
God reveals himself through his Word and a proper approach to God’s self-revelation brings awe and fear and wonder. The Word of God reveals the God of the Word and it changes the hearer and the reader.
God’s word is a reset button. A reset button to grab your attention and realign your values. God’s word helps you forget yourself and your petty concerns. God’s word opens you to new possibilities, values, and directions in life. God’s word is life, and it is open and available to you today.
Photo by Lorenzo Spoleti on Unsplash
