Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of his dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? ~ Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
We do not appreciate Jesus enough. We really don't. The reason we do not is because "everything is awesome," as The Lego Movie notes. Someone told me that I say "awesome" quite often in my sermons, it's something that I need to keep in check. I do not believe everything is awesome, though I know I can use that word so flippantly. Usually, when I say awesome, I mean "good" or "really good" or "splendid" or "delightful," but not awesome.
There are few things in this world that projects awe. And those things that do, simply mirror the awe of God. A beautiful sunset, the night sky filled with constellations, the birth of a baby, the "I do" of a newly made husband and wife, these are truly awesome. But each one is a shadow of the One who is inherently awesome. The more we understand this, the more we prepare our hearts for the spectacular. And the more we are filled with what Charles Spurgeon calls "wonder."
We don't appreciate Jesus enough because we have made the ordinary, awesome. Therefore, we numb ourselves from the truly awesome. But if we can understand just how awesome Jesus is, it would affect our speech, our thought-life, our actions. It would truly be a "very practical emotion." If we could simply grasp that Jesus' life lived, suffering, death, resurrection was for our sake, on our behalf, how much more awe we would have, and how greater our perspective in dealing with life's circumstances.
May astonishment at Jesus' blood-soaked atoning work be our greatest cause for wonder. May that wonder give us joy when we feel taken for granted in marriage, when we have iron-faced, stubborn children, when our manager at work unjustly wrongs us, when the market crashes and all of our money was there, when cancer strikes us or a loved one. May that which is truly awesome make everything that is less than awesome give you an overjoyed, eternal perspective.
There are few things in this world that projects awe. And those things that do, simply mirror the awe of God. A beautiful sunset, the night sky filled with constellations, the birth of a baby, the "I do" of a newly made husband and wife, these are truly awesome. But each one is a shadow of the One who is inherently awesome. The more we understand this, the more we prepare our hearts for the spectacular. And the more we are filled with what Charles Spurgeon calls "wonder."
We don't appreciate Jesus enough because we have made the ordinary, awesome. Therefore, we numb ourselves from the truly awesome. But if we can understand just how awesome Jesus is, it would affect our speech, our thought-life, our actions. It would truly be a "very practical emotion." If we could simply grasp that Jesus' life lived, suffering, death, resurrection was for our sake, on our behalf, how much more awe we would have, and how greater our perspective in dealing with life's circumstances.
May astonishment at Jesus' blood-soaked atoning work be our greatest cause for wonder. May that wonder give us joy when we feel taken for granted in marriage, when we have iron-faced, stubborn children, when our manager at work unjustly wrongs us, when the market crashes and all of our money was there, when cancer strikes us or a loved one. May that which is truly awesome make everything that is less than awesome give you an overjoyed, eternal perspective.