Preserving Wonder and Worship

We live in a world where our screens have increasingly captured our sense of awe and wonder. Rarely do we now just look up at the sky or nature around us and take in the grandeur of it all. With the information age, we now know a lot about how things happen. Like how the sun “rises”, how clouds are formed, how the sky is blue, and the moon shines in the night. Explanations don’t necessarily have to take away the awe, if one considers the why and the deeper causes behind the laws of nature. But we are captured.

Somehow our sense of wonder has been captured by the temporal – from the latest gadgets and entertainment. We have moved from being wonder struck to being wonder starved.

When it comes to the worship of God, we are called to live out that worship from a place of wonder at the greatness of God. How often do we catch ourselves going through the motions of worship, prayer and reading the Bible with no expectation, no anticipation, like a child in school staring at the clock waiting for it to be over.

Mathew describes for us a wondrous moment when people witnessed the power of God in a very tangible way.

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Mathew 15:29-31

I want you to notice the phrases in bold. They were amazed at the works of Jesus and this resulted in praise. Praise is most genuine and best expressed from a place of wonder. not forced, not ritualistic, not bored and going through the motions. Like the uproar of a crowd in a sports stadium, praise is humanity’s jaw-dropping, wow moment when the works of God are witnessed.

If I were to be honest, there are many times when I feel bored in church, in prayer, reading the Bible. it happens. And more often than not, it’s because I’m just killing time instead of being eager to witness something great. In the incident Mathew describes, these crowds end up camping with Jesus for three straight days! Today, most of us would run away from a three-day prayer meeting!

But time with Jesus doesn’t have to be boring, or something we run away from. These are moments to witness the greatness of God. Look at what’s happening as people drew near to Jesus. They were healed. They became more fully the people they were meant to be. In many ways, that’s what happens to anyone who decides to seek God, to carve out space so that he can reveal himself. Their lives are changed. They become more fully, what God intends for them to be. Blindness, crippledness, deafness – the cure to all this, both physical and spiritual – lies in drawing near to God.

In his presence, the clutter over our vision brought about by the many allures and distractions around us, clears up and we can see better, hear better. And when we see better, we are better.

Do you need a revival of wonder? Is your worship feeling kinda dry? Draw near to God and his word with expectation for him to do and show you something spectacular.

Awaken us Lord to the wonder of who you are and what you do. So that our worship of you can forever be true.