Tag: Creator

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Worship

Awe Shapes the Direction of Your Life

Where you look for awe will shape the direction of your life.

My last post indicated that the awesome things of this earth are signposts pointing to our awesome Creator.
grand teton mountain range at sunset to symbolize awe-inspiring things that provide direction as to what we care about
Today I want to share a bit more from Paul David Tripp’s book, Awe.

It just makes sense that your source of awe will control you, your decisions, and the course your story takes. For example, if you live in awe of material things, you will spend lots of money acquiring a pile of material stuff. To afford your ever-increasing pile, you will have to work a lot. You will also tend to attach your identity and inner sense of peace to material possessions, spending way too much time collecting and maintaining them. If material things are your awe source, you will neglect other things of value and won’t ever be fully satisfied, because these material things just don’t have the capacity to satisfy your awe-longing heart. Yes, your house will be big, your car will be luxurious, and you will be surrounded with beautiful things, but your contentment in areas that really count will be small.

Awe stimulates the greatest joys and deepest sorrows in us all.
…When you say, “If only I had _______,” how do you fill in the blank?

What are you willing to make sacrifices for, and what in your life just doesn’t seem worth the effort? Look at your highest joys and deepest sorrows, and you will find where you reach for awe. Take anger, for example. Think of how little of your anger in the last couple months had anything at all to do with the kingdom of God. You’re not generally angry because things are in the way of God and his kingdom purposes. You’re angry because something or someone has gotten in the way of something you crave, something you think will inspire contentment, satisfaction, or happiness in you. Your heart is desperate to be inspired, and you get mad when your pursuits are blocked. Where you look for awe will fundamentally control the thoughts and emotions of your heart in ways you normally don’t even realize.

Therefore, we need to stop looking for awe in the created things, and allow the wonder of the created things to lead us to look for awe in Him.

What are some things that create a sense of awe in you that point you toward the Creator?

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Categories
Worship

Developing Your Heart Involves Increasing Your Awe

To follow up on my previous post about developing your heart, I want to share with you a few excerpts from Paul David Tripp’s book, Awe. I find that I connected with his introductory remarks about himself, as it well-described both where I am and where I need to be:

I wrote this book for me because, at this point in my life, I am more aware than ever that I have a fickle and wandering heart. I wish I could say that every moment I enjoy some created thing initiates in me a deeper worship of the Creator, but it doesn’t….

I wrote this book for me because I am aware that I need to spend more time gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. I need to put my heart in a place where it can once again be in awe of the grandeur of God that reaches far beyond the bounds of the most expressive words in the human vocabulary. I need awe of him to recapture, refocus, and redirect my heart again and again. And I need to remember that the war for the awe of my heart still wages inside me.

I wrote this book for me because I came to see that I was wired for awe. …But I wasn’t just wired for awe. I was wired for awe of God. No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security that it seeks.

…The war that rages in my heart rages in yours as well. Things in the creation not only capture me, they capture you too. Like me, you need to spend more time gazing upon the awesome beauty of your Lord so that your heart will remember and, in remembering, be rescued.

God intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air-conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the inexhaustible pounding of the ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, touches, and tastes—God designed all to be awesome. And he intended you to be daily amazed.
sunset over lake to point out that awe of creation should point to the Creator
But remember – Every created awe is meant to point you to the Creator.

…No awesome thing in creation was meant to give you what only the Creator is able to give. Every awesome thing in creation is designed to point you to the One who alone is worthy of capturing and controlling the awe of your searching and hungry heart.

As it is true of a street sign, so it is true of every jaw-dropping, knee-weakening, silence-producing, wonder-inspiring thing in the universe. The sign is not the thing you are looking for. No, the sign points you to what you are looking for. So you can’t stop at the sign, for it will never deliver what the thing it is pointing to will deliver.

Created awe has a purpose; it is meant to point you to the place where the awe of your heart should rest. If awesome things in creation become your god, the God who created those things will not own your awe.

Horizontal awe is meant to do one thing: stimulate vertical awe.

May you “deepen your awe of your Redeemer, and may your heart be rescued, satisfied, and glad.”

May this become true of me – that I deepen my awe of my Redeemer!

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