Think of a time in your life when you were in awe of something or someone.  How did it start? Did it change over time? A new sailor loves learning new things about sailing … reading about sailing, spending time sailing, daydreaming about sailing, talking to others about sailing, shopping for boat gadgets, sailing in new places and trying different boats. At some point when you have mastered it to a certain degree, while you still enjoy it, you may no longer be in awe of it.  As another example, you might be in awe of a person, such as a parent, spouse, friend, or mentor. As this person becomes more familiar over time, you might take him or her for granted or no longer consider how awesome this person has been in your life.

The same is often true for the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Our faith is a relationship not a religion – it’s so easy to forget – and like any relationship there can be seasons when you are close and growing but also seasons when you are not.  New Christians are generally in awe and nearly insatiable in their pursuit of their new relationship with Christ. They read Scripture and books about Scripture to better understand. They want to spend time with other Christians and share about their faith. They are drawn to prayer. They hardly consider these things obligations but rather desires of the heart.

However, as years go by, Scripture reading, prayer, fellowship (with other believers and with God), sharing the Gospel … all these things can become familiar and second nature. There is nothing particularly wrong or unexpected about this, but when it falls into a religious ritual rather than connecting with the Person of Christ, the awe begins to dissipate. Are you aware of the subtle shift? It is so important to be tuned in and reorient back into your relationship with Christ, just as you would with any other relationship. One of my favorite roadside church signs reads “If you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved?”

Revelation 2:1-4 records the words of the Lord to the church at Ephesus. It starts by complementing the church on its many good deeds:   

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” [Then it turns to a very heartbreaking assessment.] “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:1-4, brackets mine)

The church at Ephesus was doing all the right things, but they served out of duty and not out of love. They lost their awe.

Have you lost your awe? Scripture says to return to the deeds you did at first. What are those? Meditate on the cross and what Christ did for you. Read and meditate on Scripture.  Tell others about what Christ has done in your life. Immerse yourself in the study of God’s Word. Spend time in rich fellowship with others. Worship. Awe is really the worship of One bigger than yourself. But don’t do any of this as an exercise. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Being comes before doing.

Be connected to Jesus, delight in Him, take awe in who He is, love him with your whole being … the outflow will be the deeds you did at first.

Love and awe seem to go hand in hand. One pulls me to the other. Some things never fail to fill me with awe. They tend to be in nature and inevitably draw me back into an awe relationship to God. For example, when I see a photo from the James Webb telescope, I am in awe. We think we “discovered” it, but I hear God saying, “it was there all along” and “I’ve got other stuff you haven’t dreamed about!”

Mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, “What reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been should be again?” We live with miracles every day that we get used to and take for granted. Let’s return to the awe that captured us in the first place.