Psalm 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Fear and trembling don’t sound all that positive to this Chicken Little at all! Sounds more like “the sky is falling” to me. (I hear some of my peeps snickering!)
First impressions are often wrong. Been pondering this for a couple of days and seeking some Holy Spirit revelation. The definition of fear is fully impregnated into my brain. This fear is the reverent fear, not the shaking in my shoes fear. This fear is a respectful, courteous, and subject to authority fear. So, this is good.
Rejoice is good. I like joy. But so joyful I shake? Now, that is rare, right?
When I am asked to speak to groups, I feel all quaky inside. When I get hurt, when I am really sick, when I am in shock from a loss, or really feverish, I get trauma chills and shake all over.
Trembling with joy? Hmmmmmm…………yes, as I think back I do recall a few of those times. A warm summer night in 1966 when I accepted Jesus as my Savior at the age of thirteen and made that trek to the front of the church to make my confession of faith; when my officer and gentleman asked me to marry him and when we said “I do;” when two newborns were laid in my arms for the first time; when a frightened teen decided to make our home her home, when two beautiful granddaughters entered my world, and most recently when I encountered the Lord of Glory in dancing dust! Can I tell you about that?
Three years ago now, I read Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts. This book on gratitude spent 60 weeks on the NYTimes Best Seller list and would change my life in profound ways that I did not expect. I accepted her dare to count all the ways God loves me by literally writing down and numbering all my “gifts.” I had been counting awhile and the habit was becoming entrenched. As I was cleaning house one morning after a soaking rain the night before and the day had dawned bright and beautiful, I experienced a phenomenon that Ann Voskamp called the sanctuary of time. I live in a log home, and in our “A” frame great room are windows high in the vault of the ceiling. The sun was streaming through the windows and beams of light captured and reflected a gift. Let me just read you my entry from that morning:
Gift #355. Dust dancing in air–Is this how I’m suppose to live my life? Me dust breathed breath of God, happy in the light of His Amazing Grace.
Dancing dust, microscopic particles in delightful motion, moving at the direction of an unseen hand, dancing across my den unconcerned that I was seeking to eradicate its existence. Instead, dust stopped me in my tracks. Dust! What I am made of. Me with Yahweh’s breathe giving me life. Dust, what I will return too unless Jesus returns. Dust, out of nothing I was formed. Time stopped that morning. Worship occurred in my quiet house. Dust became a gift! A moment pregnant with wonder. Time stood still and I was fully aware of the glory of God in a particle I had just a moment before disdained. God was present. I AM was with me. My living room had become a sanctuary…..a very sacred place. Eucharisteo, that Biblical Greek word meaning give thanks and find joy made sense. The gift–dust, me saying thanks for dust, and the JOY of communion that followed. Thanksgiving had me rejoicing with trembling.
Our God is an Awesome God! by Michael W. Smith
So is this a fear not? I think it qualifies. Our God is approachable and He loves us so much that He gives us thousands of gifts that unless we are looking, we will miss.
The choppy water just calmed considerably. Take a deep breath and lay your dust back and look up!
Yvonne
