of God in our lives? How can we become the true worshipers we were designed to be? How can we bring back into focus a sense of how awesome God is?
The answer is, we can’t. Not on our own, that is. Unless God Himself shows us who He is, we can’t respond to Him with true worship from our hearts.
God reveals … so we can respond … in authentic, natural worship.
So what is He showing us? If authentic worship is the natural response to what God has revealed … then what exactly has He revealed about Himself?
Well, this book, and ten thousand like it, could never contain the sum of His greatness and worth. There’s no way we could grasp it all. Our minds are too small. The brainpower is not there.
But there’s so much we can know. Enough, in fact, to keep us exalting Him for a lifetime.
For now, let’s just think about two aspects of His character that reveal His heart to you and me.
THE HUGE IDEA:
WE WORSHIP GOD FOR WHO
HE IS AND WHAT HE HAS DONE.
(Circle the word that stands out/means most to you and be ready to talk about why you chose that word.)
Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.… Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. PSALM 150: 1-2, 6, NIV
We know God is infinitely awesome.
This God with whom we deal is no small fry. He’s not our size. Not even somewhat larger. He’s not made of the stuff we’re made of. He doesn’t have to deal with our barriers and limitations.
“Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Notice that the psalmist didn’t write, “from everlasting to everlasting You were God.” But, You are God (Psalm 90:2).
What does it mean that God is infinite? Simply … that He is. Beyond that, our little brains are hard-pressed for more. We don’t really even know what “infinite” is all about. Try to define it. Infinite means having no limits. Never running out. Having no end. Existing forever. Unbound. Timeless. Stuff we can’t fully comprehend.
God has never been tired. Never slept. Never aged. Never upgraded.
He’s self-sufficient. Self-contained. God doesn’t need anything. Or anybody.
If all of us happen to fall off the face of the earth, God will still be exactly who He is. If all of us abandon our worship of Him, He’ll remain the same. God’s greatness doesn’t depend on us. If not one single person on earth ever chose to respond to Him in love, believing in Him and worshiping Him, God would still be all that He already is, always has been, and always will be.
God has
never been tired.
Never aged.
Never upgraded.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)
Science is gaining ground every day. We can look farther into space and deeper within our bodies than ever before. And what we discover stuns and amazes us. We’re finding there’s more out in space than we could ever imagine. And more complexity within our bodies than we can understand.
We’ve put men on the moon, but we can’t quite make it to Mars, our closest planet neighbor. We inhabit a galaxy comprised of billions of stars, of which our mighty sun is average at best. And our Milky Way is only one galaxy among billions more, each housing billions of other stars.
We’ll never see more than the tiniest fraction of them. Yet God has given each one a name.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26, NIV)
And while we wrestle with the cause of it all, He offers this simple yet irrefutable explanation: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And why not? If you’re as awesome as He is, why not make a universe that’s vast enough to constantly echo Your greatness back to You?
But, more than just making the universe for His glory, God did it to show Himself to you and me. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20, NIV).
(Circle the word that stands out/means most to you and be ready to talk about why you chose that word.)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and unfathomable are His ways! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. ROMANS 11:33-36
Using the word awesome, as an adjective, has become common in the conversations of our day. But nothing is really awesome but God alone.
God is awesome in glory. And awesome in holiness. On more than one occasion we glimpse into heaven and hear the angels repeating, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.” In fact, holiness is the only one of His attributes that we see angels repeating over and over again. Is it possible that holiness is at the heart of God’s God-ness? The center of all of who He is?
God is pure. Radiant. Without blemish or stain. He is untainted goodness. Without fault or blame. Perfection personified.
When You’re God, You’re always who You are—unchanging, unaffected by anything or anyone. He doesn’t change with the crowd, go with the flow, or alter to please somebody else.
And if God’s infinite nature isn’t mind-boggling enough, consider this: The infinitely awesome God is inviting you to draw near Him.
“Who is like the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?” (Psalm 113:5–6).
Yes, He’s enthroned on high, but God has lowered Himself to take notice of our lives. To become, as David said, “intimately acquainted” with all our ways.
Think about it. This great and majestic God is totally aware of every single detail of your life. He’s God in heaven, yet He knows everything there is to know about you, things you don’t even know about yourself.
What a miraculous thing that we’re invited to respond to this incredible God. That the Almighty One has somehow chosen of His own free will to desire your worship. Though He had no real need or obligation to do so, He invites you to draw near to Him and discover who He is.
How can it be that God is infinite in being and power, yet you and I can touch Him? We can touch His heart. We can cause joy to come to Him. Cause Him to smile. We can bring God pleasure. Make Him happy.
Your worship matters to God.
It’s true that “the heavens are telling of the glory of God.” But right where you are in this moment, God is there and He’s saying, “I want you to tell of My glory, too.”
The rocks He has made are capable of singing songs, should He ask them to; but He draws near your side and whispers, “I’d rather hear you sing a new song of praise to Me!”
God is constantly surrounded by heavenly throngs and endless praise, yet He says to you and me, “I know your voice, even the thoughts of your heart. And your worship—your arrows of affection—reach My heart.”
Infinitely Awesome—Intimately Approachable.
Creator—Father.
Lord Almighty—Friend.
A contradiction? No. A paradox? For sure.
That God is Father and Friend at once is part of His divine mystery—something we’re better off not trying to figure out. Instead, we need only embrace the mystery, holding on to what my friend refers to so often as “the friendship and the fear.”
If we’re going to worship God for who He is, we have to continually live in the tension of these two aspects of His character. If we swing too far to the “approachable” end of the spectrum, we’ll eventually reduce God to someone our own size, like the T-shirt that proudly proclaims, “Jesus is my homeboy.”
By doing so, we’ll dishonor Him and forget who we are. Soon we’ll be frustrated by this little god we’ve made for ourselves. Our worship will shrink like socks in a dryer. And our faith will diminish, robbing us of hope and robbing God of His glory.
But we cannot forgo His invitation to intimacy, either. How can we forget that through the wonder of grace we belong to Him as sons and daughters? We are the loved children of God. We get no extra credit in heaven for keeping Him at arm’s length. Especially given the fact He has bulldozed His way through the wall of sin and shame that kept us from Him.
Talk about how you relate to God most often … is it as “homeboy” or Holy God? How can you keep the balance between friendship with God and reverence for Him?
We are His, filled with His Spirit. And His Spirit cries out from within our hearts, “Abba, Father.” So we consider how awesome He is, standing in awe of all He has done—and at the same time we boldly embrace Him through the life of His Son, loving Him tenderly like a child in his daddy’s hug.
Our worship begins with our response to who God is. But that’s not all we have to be thankful for. That’s not all we have to celebrate.
Don’t get me wrong. If all you ever know about God is what you know right now, you would still know enough to praise Him forever.
But there’s more.
In addition to God’s infinite character, we praise Him for everything He’s done.
(Circle the word that stands out/means most to you and be ready to talk about why you chose that word.)
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ROMANS 8:15-16, NIV
our response,
both personal and corporate,
to God—
for who He is!
and what He has done!
It’s the potent combination of these two kinds of praise—praising Him for who He is and what He has done—that cause worship to always be an option for us, no matter what.
When we can’t tell what God is up to, and we can’t see Him working around in our circumstances, we can still praise Him simply for who we know Him to be. Even if our circumstances don’t reveal it, God is still all of who He is. No matter what life sends our way, we focus our attention on Him. He’s still God in the midst of joy and tragedy.
In that same way, we can always praise Him for what He has done, though at times we feel we can’t quite sense that He is near.
Our lives are filled with gifts from God, little miracles. Flowers every spring. The trees that line the road we take to school. The car (new or not so new) that gets us there. A chance to laugh. Eyes to see. A place to sleep. His faithfulness in days gone by. All of these should keep us worshiping moment by moment. Let’s face it, gratitude for the gift of breath alone should keep us praising for quite some time!
We praise God for who He is.
We honor Him for all He has done.
Even if God never does another thing for us, should we cease to worship? Of course not—not when we remember all that He’s already done through the gift of His Son.
No matter what life sends our way,
we focus our attention on Him.
He’s still a good and gracious God
in the midst of joy and tragedy.