Remain in Awe
“Remain in awe of me so that you aren’t thwarted by the fear of What I ask you to do in the physical.”
God said the above sentence to me one day, and I realized that it sounded similar to something else He said once.
“When people realize the awe of Me, they shrink back.”
He said this right before He entrusted the Warrior Mom movement to me and Barbara. As the Warrior Mom movement began, I was so excited and dizzy that I had to sit down. Then, trouble and difficulty came. There were obstacles, irritations, and I became exhausted from them. My “troubles” were all good ones because they had to do with the Warrior Mom movement. Ministry troubles were at least exciting because they meant the ministry was underway, but they were still troubles that had to be dealt with. I realized rather quickly that when people realize the awe of God, they can be tempted to shrink back. I understood that God was trying to warn me that good things were coming, but I had to be strong and persevere because difficulties would arise amid the blessing of beginning a ministry; I had to refuse to shrink back.
The awe of God is an awesome thing; hence the similarity of those words. God will test us though before He enlists us full-time because He needs to know we won’t shrink back mid-battle or mid-blessing. I have come to realize that God’s blessing require something of us. They require us to remain faithful to His blessings even when those blessing don’t feel like blessings anymore. I learned a long time ago not to make a major decision or get into an important conversation when I’m extremely tired. Speaking from exhaustion never works very well for me. Further, if I feel exhausted, I must remind myself not to generalize my exhaustion to my circumstance or situation and say, “Well, since I’m tired this thing will never work out.” No, I just get some sleep and get up again!
I think it’s real easy to get excited during the first hour of the blessing, but when the 2nd or 3rd hour approaches and that very same blessing requires us to roll up our sleeves and dedicate ourselves to helping produce a harvest from it, we can get tired and think it’s not a blessing anymore. God will not entrust a large mission to anyone who is merely infatuated with being blessed.
“Remain in awe of me so that you aren’t thwarted by the fear of What I ask you to do in the physical.”
Doesn’t this sentence make wonderful sense now?
God was letting me know that I need to remain in His awe – in His presence – in His strength – in His Word so that when I began to feel physically tired, I could persevere!
There are many stories in the Bible of people who had work to do for the Kingdom; they faced obstacles and exhaustion too.
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
I challenge you to read this story. As soon as they got to work, they faced challenges. People came against them telling them they couldn’t rebuild the house of God.
Another story of such is when the wall of Jerusalem was going to be rebuilt.
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us.
We all have stories of when we began to do a good work, and people and circumstances came against us. We all know that victory is achieved when we persevere through those obstacles.
Let us go back to the second sentence I mentioned.
“When people realize the awe of Me, they shrink back.”
Do you remember when Moses was on the mountain with God? When Moses came down from the mountain, his face and hair were glowing from being in the presence of the Lord. I think of this when I reflect on the previous sentence. The awe of God is such an amazing thing, that when we are in His presence, we can get overwhelmed and run in fear from what we just experienced. I also think that once we experience His presence, and/or simply just realize His awesomeness, we can get intimidated, thinking, “I’ll never be able to
be as amazing as God, therefore, I’m not going to even try.” I think people do this all the time. Many people think they have to be all cleaned up and perfect before they come to God. They don’t realize that they don’t have to do that; they can come as they are, and Jesus will do the cleaning up for them. Many people don’t come to Christ, reach their potential, or experience the blessings of God because they allow themselves to be intimidated by the awesomeness of God, rather than inspired by His ability to do awesome things through them. It comes down to an issue of fear. Whether you are fearful of the awesomeness of God or fearful that if you try you will fail, you are focusing more on fear within yourself than faith in an awesome God. When God talks about “fearing Him,” He is referring to remaining in awe of Him.
So, to experience the full blessing of God we must first realize He’s awesome, and we don’t have to be. And second, we must realize that we must have the faith to step into His awesomeness, relying on Him for the physical strength we need to persevere through trials. When we do this, we will be able to persevere through everyday battles as well as through obstacles within the blessings that God has for us. You see, there’s always another blessing on the other side of the one you are currently experiencing, but if you stop mid-blessing, you’ll never realize the awesomeness of the next one awaiting you.
“Remain in awe of me so that you aren’t thwarted by the fear of What I ask you to do in the physical.”
I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.
Today, I encourage you to step into the awesomeness of God.
Warrior Moms Unite!®
Love,
Kristina
The Warrior Mom Ministry was founded by Kristina Seymour, author of The Warrior Mom Handbook – Equipping Women through the Word, a Bible study for moms who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. Kristina has learned that moms can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about The Warrior Mom Handbook, the Warrior Mom Ministry, and to sign up for daily encouragement, visit, www.warriormoms.net.
Originally published Tuesday, 18 June 2013.
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