Driven by Awe: Missions, Growing in Grace

After six hours in a crammed airplane, we finally landed in Lima. Due to the long flight, it seemed my legs forgot how to work. Grateful to be able to move freely, I walked through the airport relieved. However, this was only the first leg of our journey.

Next, we would squeeze as many people and luggage as possible into a van and make the seven hour drive to the mountains. The mountain road was merely a dirt path on the side of a mountain (if you don’t like heights I suggest you don’t look out the driver-side windows). We weaved back and forth on the switchbacks, dodging oncoming traffic as our tires revolved mere inches away from the cliff. Finally, after much prayer, we arrived to the village that seemed to be the “ends of the earth.”

Why travel to such distance, spend the money, and plan months in advanced just to arrive at this tiny village with only a few hundred people? Because our God is glorious and deserves the praise of every human being, and right now he is not getting their worship. They don’t know him and they don’t have anyone coming to tell them how great he is. They haven’t experienced his forgiveness, had the burden of their sin lifted, or stood in awe of a great and holy God.

Missons and Awe of God

If we are not driven by awe of God in our life, then our desire to share his greatness with others will diminish. As one author stated: “Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak.”¹ As we regularly feast upon the glory of God, as we behold his beauty each day of our lives, then inevitably we will want others to do the same. As we encounter the most beautiful, powerful, merciful being in all of existence, we’ll want others to likewise taste and see that he is good.

The more we behold the greatness and glory of God, the more we will desire that glory to be known all over creation. We will cry out with the Psalmist: “Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory!” (Psalm 72:19).

The Glory of God in Every Nation

While ascending into heaven, Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). The biblical picture of the throne room of the Lord includes a multitude of people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” gathering together and worshipping the Lamb (Rev. 5).

As his people feast on the goodness and glory of God, it will stir in us a desire to see his glory spread all over this earth. We will be witnesses in the places we live, and we will also somehow be involved in spreading his fame to every nation and village on the globe. It doesn’t mean that everyone can go themselves, but everyone can play a part.

Believer, behold the glory of God each day and spend your life spreading that glory to as many people across as many nations as you can, until the whole earth is filled with his glory!

“Driven by Awe” is a series that examines the practical implications of believers who regularly feast upon the glory of God and continually stand amazed by him. To see more in the series, click here.