“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” - Psalm 91:1
When I was six years old, my Grandfather gave me his red King James Bible that he used for preaching. Occasionally, we traveled to his town and would attend his church. I remember feeling a sense of awe as I sat in the pristine oak pews. I was surrounded by high vaulted ceilings with elegant chandeliers, stone walls laced in beautiful woodwork, and stained glass windows streaming down each side wall. In the front was an altar with a large opened white Bible, a communion cup and plate, a large hanging cross, and a stained glass window of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The service would begin with the grand pipe organ echoing its sounds that reverberated within my whole body. My grandfather would step out from the altar door wearing a long priestly robe with a sash draped around his shoulders.
Now here I was holding my first Bible . . . the very one my grandfather used in his church services. I would line up my stuffed animals in rows like pews, open up my red Bible to Genesis 1 and preach to them. What drew me to replicate this experience as a little girl was the sense of reverence, awe, and mystery that I felt at Grandpa’s church. Years later, in High school, I was lured into the arms of Jesus by the “personal” love of my Savior, thus, the beginning point of my salvation. The Lord does not want to be distant or impersonal to us. He invites us to open up our hearts to Him and then He will come in and “dine with us” (Revelation 3:20). He is not a God that is a cosmic force or entity that is “somewhere out there watching over us.” He is our personal Friend, Father, Brother, Husband, Savior and Lord. He calls us His daughter, His beloved, His bride, His sister, and His friend.
All this said, we are not to lose the sense of holy, reverent fear of our God that I felt as a little girl sitting in the pews of my grandfather’s church. The Lord calls Himself “Almighty God.” “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). He is our Creator (Genesis 1:1). When we forget the fact that He is the Almighty, Holy, Sovereign, Creator, we easily lose faith that He can do great and mighty things in our lives and in this world.
Have hope, you worship an Almighty God!