Day 35: Jesus, Your Glory Is Awesome

When we stop and behold the glory of Jesus, we will worship with awe and reverence. One of John’s first statements about Jesus was that “…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He was with us. We’ve seen His glory! He’s awesome and magnificent, full of grace and truth. The Message says it this way:
“The Word became flesh and blood,
And moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
The one-of-a-kind glory,
Like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
True from start to finish.”
It must have been amazing to be one of those first disciples, an eyewitness to the glory of Jesus. But we, too, have the privilege of beholding His glory because of the indwelling Spirit. “We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Lord shines in our heart, according to Paul, and gives the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Seeing Jesus and being with Him will, at times, bring us to our knees in humble adoration and worship. And sometimes we will tremble with an overwhelming fear at the blinding light and infinite majesty. Jesus’ glorious presence is true and real—a fact that goes beyond feelings or senses. Sometimes the weight of the present circumstance burdens me in a way that blinds me to the fact of Jesus’ glorious presence. But my feelings don’t lessen the truth. That’s why we walk by faith in what we know is true. The disciples saw Jesus’ glory there on the mount of transfiguration. John saw His glory when he turned to hear the voice of the One standing among the lampstands at the beginning of the Revelation. John saw Jesus clothed with a long robe and a golden sash. “The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters” (Revelation 1:12-16).

Today, let’s remember the glory. Let’s turn and look into the light of His Presence for a moment and become blinded to the burdens of our days. Let’s take some time to “tremble” at the Word of God. The Lord says: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word” (Isaiah 66:2). John Henry Jowett, in his book Thirsting For The Springs, says that when we come upon the “whiteness of the Eternal, the unsullied sovereignty, the holiness that would not be trifled with,” our careless walk is sharply arrested. Our levity is changed into trembling and our indifference is broken up in awe. Jowett goes on to point out that in the current culture “we have not got a Jesus before Whom we frequently ‘stand in awe’”. Then Jowett says, “When a man has contemplated the dazzling holiness of God, and in self-communion has discovered his own dark appalling need, and, full of trembling, turns again to the Father, he has only one resource…Christ Jesus is our Righteousness. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. We have no hope but in His death. In His offering we re-discover our completeness. In His sacrifice we find our life and security. This is no beautiful theory detached from the hard facts of burdensome life. A million souls can set their testimony and seal it to be true. When they had ransacked their own heart and found it to be a nest of defilement, and they were filled with fear, they turned to the love of Calvary and found provision for both fear and defilement, and in the crucified Christ found purity and rest.” Jowett closes his chapter by saying that “awe and trembling converge in fruitful trust” and finally result in the discovery of rest. “Trust keeps open the line of communication between the soul and God. Along that line convoys of blessedness are brought into the heart; manifold gifts of grace for the weak and defenseless spirit. When I trust I keep open the ‘highways of the Lord,’ and along that road there come to me from the Eternal my bread, my water, my instructions, my powers of defense.”

So remember the glory, dear friends. Tremble at His word, stand in awe, hope in Christ, and trust at all times in your Lord.

My Response: Lord Jesus, thank You for the blinding glory of Your presence. Someday I will see You face to face and look into Your eyes. The thought of that moment brings me to a place of awe and wonder. May I live in the light of it today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.