{"id":21282,"date":"2017-01-31T00:10:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T08:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10001"},"modified":"2017-01-31T00:10:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T08:10:43","slug":"january-31-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/01\/31\/january-31-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 31, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cLord, teach me to number my days\u2026\u201d<\/em> Psalm 90:12<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 31<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Starting Today<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In my life, there are two life-changing contemplations that do not specifically come from the Scriptures (though they are supported by Scripture), but both are applicable to our cultivation of awe and reverence for God. I believe they are biblical concepts that please God, worthy of our consideration on this last day dedicated to this topic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. You are who you have been becoming.<\/span>
\n2. A year from now, you\u2019ll wish you\u2019d started today.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been following this blog for the past 30 days, perhaps you\u2019ve been given some new ways of thinking about God, or you\u2019ve learned some things you did not know. Maybe you feel drawn by the Holy Spirit to spend more time in prayer, reading the Word, and contemplation of the \u201cI Am\u201d Whom we worship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things will begin to happen when you follow through. Just like a New Year\u2019s resolution, if you merely know things in your head but you make no move for things to be difference, it will not have an impact on you. \u201cBut why do you call Me \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 and not do the things which I say?\u201d<\/em> (Luke 6:46).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I did an in-depth study on Anna, the aged prophetess in Luke 2:36-38 who met Jesus as an infant in the temple, it occurred to me that she did not become a holy woman overnight. She had been a widow for many decades, probably quite poor and needing the care of others. She would have spent decades trusting God to be her provision\u2014which is a strong, though challenging, character builder. (All challenging circumstances are used by God to build strong, godly character in us.) She would have had many, many years to develop a relationship with her God, because, \u201c\u2026The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit\u201d<\/em> (1 Corinthians 7:34). She had been becoming holy in body and spirit probably for most of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

This concept of \u201cbecoming\u201d is deeply challenging to me. I am married, yet I care very much about the things of the Lord. I care about whether I am pure; I care whether I am holy in my spirit. The importance of being holy before God causes me to spend a portion of every day in prayer, worship, reading the Word, and meditation on His greatness and majesty. As I commit to this discipline, I find that awe and reverence for God has grown exponentially. Lest you think I am taking credit for a godly transformation, let me make it clear that this has been a long work of the Holy Spirit, not only in our daily communion but as He works in my life through a great many trials, tribulations, and experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second principle, about wishing I\u2019d started a year earlier, came as I was facing Step One of a super-huge project. I just could not get going, and yet I believed with my whole being that God had called and prepared me to do it. When I told a friend what I believed God was leading me to do, she simply replied, \u201cWell, if God gave it, you\u2019d better get busy with it!\u201d Ouch!<\/span><\/p>\n

This, too, applies to cultivating awe and reverence for God. I feel that I wasted so much of my life pursuing my own agenda, my own happiness and satisfaction, never knowing that those things would never be truly found apart from the Lord. We miss so much when we live apart from knowing Him in all His fullness. Our fulfillment is found in knowing and serving Him, in the living abundance that He offers, and in the fruit-bearing work He brings to pass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s encourage one another to \u201cbe done\u201d with just biding our time on earth, never pursuing eternal things. Rather, let us build one another up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, \u201cThen those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name\u201d<\/em> (Malachi 3:16).<\/span><\/p>\n

This Scripture illuminates the bottom line of cultivating awe and reverence: fearing the Lord and meditating on His name.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur great God and Father, may these words fall on ears and eyes open to You. May all hindrances to faith be removed by Your own hand. Draw us ever closer to You, and give us understanding, that we may worship You in spirit and in truth. In the powerful Name of Jesus, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLord, teach me to number my days\u2026\u201d Psalm 90:12 Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 31 Starting Today In […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5xg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}