Sincere Reverence, Joyful Informality, and Genuine Humility

I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 3. A feeling of humble reverence. I am disappointed that we come to church without a sense of God or a feeling of humble reverence. There are false religions, strange religious cults and Christian cults that think they have God in a box someplace, and when they approach that box they feel a sense of awe. Of course, you and I want to be saved from all paganism and false cultism. But we would also like to see a company of people who were so sure that God was with them, not in a box or in a biscuit, but in their midst. They would know that Jesus Christ was truly among them to a point that they would have a sense of humble reverence when they gathered together. 4. An air of joyous informality. The great English preacher who was pastor for many years of Westminster Chapel in London, G. Campbell Morgan, left his church and went down to Wales where the Welsh revival was going on under Evan Roberts earlier in this century. He stayed there awhile and soaked up the glory of it. I read the sermon that he preached to his congregation afterward, and it was as near to scolding as that great preacher ever got. He said to them, "Your singing is joyless, your demeanor is joyless, and you do not have the lift or joy that I saw in Wales." He urged them that they might get into a place where that sense of joyous informality might be upon them. 5. A place where each esteems others better than himself or herself. As a result of that, everyone should be willing to serve, but nobody would be jockeying for position. Nothing is quite so bitterly humorous as ambition in the church of Christ. It would be as though a man who was on a lifeboat being saved from certain salty death in the ocean depths should become ambitious to become captain of the little boat on its way to save those on board. It is as though a man were to enter a disaster area where an earthquake had hit and people were dying and would fight for a high position there. The church of Christ is no place for the ambitious or the lazy. .

Verse
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.Ephesians 4:2

Thought
Politeness is sometimes mistaken for reverence, irreverence for informality and "Uriah Heep-ness" for humility. The positive qualities bloom when there is a sense of God's presence.

Prayer
Lord, show us Yourself to the degree we can bear it. Seeing You will grip us with Your holiness, strip us of cold formality and clothe us in humility.

from A.W. Tozer's Rut, Rot, or Revival