Dear Readers: We have had many requests to revisit this 31-day series originally posted in January, 2017. We pray you develop a fresh hunger and thirst for God, a passion to pursue Him will be awakened, and a deeper revelation received. Our hope is that a profound awe and reverence for Him will be cultivated within you.

~ Editor, Walk His Way

 “…And I have put My words in your mouth…” Isaiah 51:16a

 Mere Words

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 3

Walk his Way revisited —First posted in January, 2017

Trying to write about cultivating awe and reverence for God feels like putting a drop of water into a pool and looking down to see if it made a difference.

There are no words adequate to explain Him. Nothing I say will add to Him or give you a completely accurate picture of Him. It feels like my words, though my intention is to magnify Him, will only diminish Him because they are never big enough. My language skills are not on a heavenly scale. I do not have the ability of a Master Author.

We can watch a video of a famous, eloquent, powerful, godly man give testimony to Who God is, and we are so moved in our souls. The background music plays with our senses, enhancing the speaker’s words—now loud and majestic, now soft and humble—and we are right there with him in our hearts and minds. It is wonderful; it is sunrises and sunsets, mountains and spring flowers, ocean depths and wonder for the soul. We walk away with that awe and reverence for God we should always hold within us.

But take away the music and the microphone, and what is left? Take away the images of the universe, the stars and planets, and other mighty shows of God’s power, and what remains? Only words. Lowly, common words that do not seem to befit nor describe the Creator.

To put it simplistically, words are all we have for writing. It’ll never be enough. We can sit all day and think and ponder and meditate on how to make something bigger and more and better with our words, but we will fall short every time when trying to write of God. If we could add a nuance, a facial expression, an emphatic voice—some background music, so to speak—then perhaps the reader could feel what the writer feels. Alas, all we have is words.

I am comforted that the Master Author used words—but what words He used! He used only words to write the Book of all books. Only words to write that mighty love letter to each of us that is somehow personal, as if written only for one person. Only words conveyed the entire plan of the universe from beginning to end, and beyond the beginning, and beyond the end. Only words told us how to live so that we will live with Him. Only words told us what awaits us for eternity. Only words explain everything we need to know.

Even the life of Jesus, the Living Word, has been put into words for us to read. But thanks be to God—there is another dimension to the words. They don’t just sit on a page waiting to be discovered. It is something we can’t see but we can surely feel and know. It—He—is the Holy Spirit moving among the words so that we can find and discover, grasp and understand. He makes the words real, so that the life in them is our reality. Haven’t we all read a passage and said, “He put that there just for me. It speaks to exactly what I am going through.” We live and move and breathe right in that place. He is present in His active, living Word. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14).

Father, grant that we may look beyond mere mortal attempts to create awe and reverence for You. Enable us by Your Holy Spirit. Amen.