Do we behave in a manner that daily venerates the Glory of that King?
Dr. David Wells of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary offers this sobering critique regarding the state of our priorities as a culture and as a church existing within that culture:
“It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgments no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertiser’s sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness. It is a condition we have assigned him after having nudged him out to the periphery of our secularized life. His truth is no longer welcome in our public discourse. The engine of modernity rumbles on, and he is but a speck in its path.”
This heartbreaking assessment hits the mark with painful accuracy. If we take seriously the reality of Who our Redeemer truly is (infinite in majesty, holiness, righteousness, glory) this must change. It is not an option, not a suggestion, not a step to 'your best life now'. It is simply a glaring reality that we must face: God is objectively the only thing truly worthy of our heart's focus and praise. If something other than He occupies that focus, we must eradicate whatever the object may be that our heart would allow to usurp God's rightful place within us.
This is a discipline that must be developed and maintained on a continual basis. How easy it is for us to dethrone the true King of our heart and replace Him with any number of fleeting and frivolous possibilities. We must fight to be a people that war against this ready inclination of the natural man. We must daily seek to behold the glory of our King, as Moses did, asking regularly "Lord, show me Your glory."
When we behold the glory of the King, when we truly catch a glimpse of His greatness and majesty, we cannot help but be transformed. We cannot help but be overwhelmed. We cannot help but be sanctified, set apart for the honor of our King.
by Matt Gould
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