The awe of God

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’” (Matthew 6:9) 

The very first words of the Lord’s Prayer - taught by Jesus himself - start by recognising the awe and wonder of God. We are not told to start with a request, or by saying sorry, or by asking for forgiveness; instead we start by declaring and praising that God is holy. That God is … well … God!
 
As a Life Group, we are working through the Prayer Course by Pete Greig and started by studying these first words of the Lord’s Prayer. The course invited us to pause, rejoice and praise when we start to pray. We should begin with praise and worship, taking time to recognise the sheer magnitude and goodness of God. It’s so easy to say these first few words of the Lord’s Prayer - ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’ - without thought, since we have repeated them so many times. By doing so, we miss this important first step. So, what helps us remember God’s awe?
 
This instruction led to an interesting group discussion: what makes you experience the awe of God? What helps you to be so blown away by God that you cannot do anything but praise Him? For some in our group it was nature, for others it was worship, for others it was spending time thinking about creation and its vastness. For me, it was time. Or perhaps, more accurately, looking back over time as a series of chapters. This might sound a bit odd, so I’ll explain.
 
We can usually see how God has been at work in our lives by lifting our gaze to look back over a period of time - a chapter. The reality is that for most of us, life is spent looking one or two days ahead, focusing on the things in front of us and all the troubles and demands that come with that. It’s like reading a book. As you turn each page you are drawn into the story that is playing out in front of you, but as you get further on and read more chapters, it becomes easier to see the role these earlier chapters play as the bigger story plays out.
 
When I do this, I always see how God has moved for good in my life and those around me, even during difficult times. And it is often in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined, let alone would have asked God for in prayer. It might be a moment of reflection at Christmas, Easter, a birthday, the last time you saw a friend or a loved one. Looking back at a specific time is a helpful way to see the bigger story of your life unfold.
 
For me, I have experienced a fresh sense of awe and wonder having looked back over the last year. About this time last year, as the church came together for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM), I was tasked with giving a talk to the congregation in the absence of Dan, our vicar, who was absent due to ill health. The church was going through a period of change with Staff Team members leaving and we were wrestling with the return to church post-pandemic. It was a difficult moment.
 
A year later and it is so evident our church has been richly blessed and things unfolded in ways I never imagined. That is a huge encouragement to me. God’s hand was over it all. I won’t give all the details here; instead take a look at the Churchwardens report in the upcoming Book of Reports, which will be circulated to you soon. You’ll see what I mean!
 
Let me leave you with an exercise: pick a specific moment in your life in the past and really reflect on how the circumstances have changed. How the things that seemed big and scary are maybe not so big and scary anymore. I fully appreciate that for some, you might find yourself in the middle of a difficult moment, or without hope. To those people I would like to offer two things: 1) an encouragement that you might not be at the end of the current chapter yet, and 2) if nothing else, surely we know that our God is good, that He is for us and He will not forsake us.
 
As it says in Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash