I Stand in Awe of You

7/14/1993

To sing a song like “I Stand in Awe of You,” and really mean it from the heart, you need to have seen these things about Him — that He is beautiful beyond description and marvelous beyond words. I think our ability, our motivation, our strength of heart to live lives not controlled by sin and attitudes, selfishness and self-preservation, rights and opinions, and those sorts of things — our ability to live the kind of life that Jesus calls us to without blowing it on self interests — is very directly tied to what we’ve seen of Jesus. That’s why Paul said by the Spirit that as we behold Him, we are transformed or transfigured from one degree of glory to another by the Lord, who is the Spirit. The process of spending time beholding Him is essential for the transformation of life.

If you won’t spend time beholding Him, you won’t be transformed. Let me give you an example from the earthly realm that I think we can all understand. When you really, really love someone, you’re not going to do things to interfere with that love. You’re not going to do anything that would tragically put a roadblock in that relationship. You just would not do it. If you really, really treasure a person’s relationship, you’re not going to do things to them or around them that would break their heart. If you truly love them, if you spend time beholding them and counting as precious that relationship, if you’ve not taken it for granted, but have treasured it, then you’re going to guard what you think, and say, and do. You will live consistently with the value you place on that relationship. In the natural realm, it’s easy to see that we don’t intentionally harm our relationship with those that we really love and cherish. In fact, we’ll do everything we can to preserve that relationship out of true love for them.

The same is very true of God. It is not so much, “Do this, don’t do that. God said this. He commands that. This is right, that is wrong.” That really isn’t what Christianity is about. That is not how Jesus lived with His Father, and that’s not how we are to live with the Father, either. Do we behold Him? Do we see that He’s beautiful beyond description and marvelous beyond compare? Do we perceive that what He does is truly good and who He is is truly wonderful? If we really understand who God is and we spend time beholding Him, rather than just meditating on do’s and don’ts and concepts and ideas, there’s a guarantee that His lovability will speak, through the word of the living God, to our hearts and lives. If we could really see Him, we wouldn’t feel a need to sin anymore. We wouldn’t want to waste a moment of relationship with Him. We wouldn’t want in any way to endanger our intimacy with Him.

Being safeguarded by His love is possible — if we really see who He is. Have we really pondered Him, and beheld Him, and held Him up before our eyes, and contemplated who He is and what He’s done? Do we see His character and marvel at His deeds, at His love, at His generosity, and at His willingness to forgive sins and throw them into the ocean? Have we stood before Him, amazed at His willingness to abide with us continually, to watch over us and number the very hairs on our head? Do we see His desire for us in spite of our lack of lovability? That’s when we are transfigured — when we really see how marvelous beyond words that He is.

Transformation does not come from some mystical “abracadabra.” It arises out of our love for Him. Just as with any other relationship that we cherish, we’re not intentionally going to endanger our fellowship with Jesus by foolish acts of selfishness. By His Spirit in us we experience communion with Him, and if we treasure that fellowship, we’re not going to do stupid, self-centered things that would endanger or even diminish that true, heart-felt relationship.

So I’d like to encourage you, as I have been saying unto my own soul these last few minutes, to sing this song with your eyes really on Him. From the heart, say these things. More than that, ponder and consider Him hour by hour, day by day, year by year, and decade by decade. See if in fact the love of God filling your bones — an infatuation with Jesus — doesn’t change how your attitudes and your actions work themselves out day to day. I know it will, on the authority of the word of God and the experience of the great cloud of witnesses.

If you’ve ever fallen in love with anyone in the human sense, you know that it changed the way you thought, the way you acted, the look on your face, and the way you spent your time. There was something driving you, causing you to sacrifice anything and everything. And now, consecrating to God our hearts, our minds, and our eyes, let’s have that same infatuation with Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter from Galilee. I assure you in the name of Jesus that beholding Him with that kind of heart and those kind of eyes, you’ll be amazed at how easy the Christian life is. It’s not hard when you’re in love!

So behold Him, and let this song be a part of it:

I Stand in Awe of You

You are beautiful beyond description

Too marvelous for words

Too wonderful for comprehension

Like nothing ever seen or heard.

Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom?

Who can fathom the depths of Your love?

You are beautiful beyond description,

Majesty enthroned above.

And I stand, I stand in awe of You,

I stand, I stand in awe of You.

Holy God to Whom all praise is due,

I stand in awe of You.